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STUDIES 


IN 

English and American 

LITERATURE, 

FROM CHAUCER TO THE PRESENT TIME; 


WITH 

STANDARD SELECTIONS FROM REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS 
FOR CRITICAL STUDY AND ANALYSIS. 


DESIGNED FOR USE IN HIGH SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, SEMINARIES, 
NORMAL SCHOOLS, AND BY PRIVATE STUDENTS. 



ALBERT NcRAUB, Ph.D., 

Principal of the Central State Normal School, Lock Haven, Pa., 
and Author of “ Lessons in English,” “ Practical 
English Grammar,” E' 


^■^CO PVR iC Xt' 7 

MAY I ~ 


/ \ c v 

- K orwAsvii N ° 


PHILADELPHIA: 

1882. 




V* 







Copyright, 

ALBERT N. RAUB, PH. D., 
18S2. 


Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers and Electrotypers, Philada. 





PREFACE. 


This book has been written because there seems to 
be a necessity for a work of the kind in order to teach 
literature successfully. 

Too often the drill in rhetoric and grammar which 
our young men and women receive in schools ends with 
the mere technical drill, without any application of the 
principles of either science to the critical analysis and 
study of our literature. The study’of literature as pur¬ 
sued in the usual way is the study of special biography, 
and in no way helps the young student either to appre¬ 
ciate the classics of our language or to prepare himself 
for authorship. 

The object of this book is to present not only a brief 
biographical sketch of the representative writers, but 
also a criticism of their work, and, following this, a 
masterpiece selected from each author’s writings, with 
such explanatory notes appended as seem necessary, 
and such questions as will lead the pupil to study close¬ 
ly and critically not only the beauties, but also the de¬ 
fects, of his language, style, and thought. The teacher 
will of course add many questions which want of space 
prevents the author from inserting. It is thought that 
a sufficient number of questions, however, have been 
given to induce the pupil to study each selection with 
care. Experience in the class-room sustains the author 
of this work in saying that pupils pursue the study of 



4 


PREFACE. 


literature and classics by this method with great eager¬ 
ness and delight. 

Twenty-seven standard writers have been selected to 
represent the literature of Great Britain, and twenty- 
three that of America. The author does not claim 
that the list is complete: many may differ with him 
also in the choice of selections to be studied; but the 
field from which to glean is so extended that it would 
be absurd for any one to claim that he alone has made 
the best choice. To the fifty standard writers have 
been added the chief contemporaries of each Age, 
many of whom might properly be included among 
the representative writers did not the limited size of 
the book prevent. 

The book does not aim to be a complete history of 
English Literature: it seeks, rather, to combine the 
study of English Classics with the study of the history 
of English Literature, and thus awaken such an inter¬ 
est as will lead the student not only to read biography, 
but also to seek culture through the study of master¬ 
pieces of English style and thought. 

The author desires to express his acknowledgment to 
various American publishing-houses for permission to 
make selections from their copyright editions of Amer¬ 
ican authors; also to Miss Harriet B. Swineford, Teacher 
of English Literature, English Grammar, and Rhetoric 
in the Central State Normal School at Lock Haven, 
Pennsylvania, whose untiring industry and excellent 
literary taste have greatly aided him in the production 
of this book. 

Lock Haven, Pa., ] 

April 5, 1882. j 


ALBERT N. RAUB. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Figures of Speech.9 

Origin of the English Language.14 

ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

I. THE AGE OF CHAUCER. . . . . 19 

1. Geoffrey Chaucer .19 

Sketch of a Poor Parson .23 

Contemporaneous Writers of the Age of Chaucer .25 

II. THE ELIZABETHAN AGE.26 

2. Edmund Spenser.28 

The Bower of Bliss .31 

3. William Shakespeare.34 

Trial-Scene from The Merchant of Venice .36 

4. Francis Bacon.47 

Essay on Friendship.49 

Contemporaneous Writers of the Elizabethan Age . . . . . . . . 58 

III. THE AGE OF MILTON .60 

5. John Milton .60 

Lycidas.63 

Contemporaneous Writers of the Age of Milton .74 

IV. AGE OF THE RESTORATION.76 

6. John Dryden .76 

Alexander’s Feast . 79 

Contemporaneous Writers of the Age of the Restoration .87 

Y. AGE OF QUEEN ANNE .88 

7. Joseph Addison.88- 

Essay on Cheerfulness.91 

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God.97 


5 






















6 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

8. Alexander Pope.98 

Essay on Man, Epistle I. ..100 

Contemporaneous Writers of the Age of Queen Anne .105 

VI. THE AGE OF JOHNSON .107 

9. Thomas Gray .107 

Elegy Written in a Country Cliurcliyard . . . . 110 

10. Samuel Johnson. 118 

The Voyage of Life .120 

11. Oliver Goldsmith.128 

The Deserted Village.130 

12. William Cowper. . . . . 147 

Lines on the Eeceipt of my Mother’s Picture . . 149 

13. Robert Burns . . ..156 

The Cotter’s Saturday Night.159 

Contemporaneous Writers of the Age of Johnson .169 

VII. THE AGE OF SCOTT . . . . 172 

14. Lord Byron.172 

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.176 

Mont Blanc.180 

15. Sir Walter Scott . . . . .181 

Lochinvar.184 

The Lay of the Last Minstrel.187 

Patriotism. . . . . . . 188 

16. Samuel Taylor Coleridge.189 

Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni . . 191 

17. Thomas Moore .196 

The Turf shall he my Fragrant Shrine . . . . 198 

Those Evening Bells .199 

The Glory of God in Creation.200 

18. William Wordsworth.201 

The Kitten and the Falling Leaves.204 

Contemporaneous Writers of the Age of Scott .209 

VIII. THE VICTORIAN AGE.214 

# 

19. Alfred Tennyson . . 215 

The Charge of the Light Brigade .217 

The Charge of the Heavy Brigade.220 

20. Elizabeth Barrett Browning .223 

Cowper’s Grave.225 

The Sleep.228 














CONTENTS. 


7 

PAGE 

21. Jean Ingelow .229 

The Middle Watch . . .230 

Work .234 

22. Thomas Babington Macaulay .235 

The Puritans.237 

23. Charles Dickens.243 

The Last Hours of Little Paul Dombey . . . . 246 

24. William Makepeace Thackeray .252 

George III.254 

25. George Eliot.262 

Saint Theresa .264 

26. Thomas Carlyle.267 

Essay on Burns .270 

27. James Anthony Froude.. . . 278 

The Instructiveness of Eornan History . . . . 279 

Contemporaneous Writers of the Victorian Age .285 


AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

I. THE COLONIAL PERIOD .298 

1. Jonathan Edwards .298 

Meaning of the Phrase “ Moral Inability ” . . . . 300 

Contemporaneous Writers of the Colonial Period .301 

II. THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD .302 

2. Joseph Rodman Drake .302 

. The American Flag.304 

3. Fitz-Greene Halleck .307 

Marco Bozzaris . 308 

Contemporaneous Writers of the Revolutionary Period .313 

III. THE NATIONAL PERIOD .316 

4. William Cullen Bryant.317 

Thanatopsis.319 

5. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow .324 

The Launch of the Ship.326 

6. John G. Whittier.332 

The Barefoot Boy.333 































8 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

7. Oliver Wendell Holmes.338 

The Chambered Nautilus.340 

The Last Leaf.342 

8. George Bancroft .343 

The Hudson Biver .^ . 346 

9. William H. Prescott.351 

Queen Isabella.353 

10. John Lothrop Motley .357 

William of Orange .358 

11. William Ellery Channing.366 

The Sense of Beauty.368 

12. Balph Waldo Emerson .370 

Essay on Goethe .372 

Extract.377 

13. James Bussell Lowell .378 

The Vision of Sir Launfal.380 

Extract.384 

14. Washington Irving. 385 

Ichahod Crane’s Bide. 389 

15. James Fenimore Cooper .397 

The Wreck of the Ariel .399 

16. Nathaniel Hawthorne .406 

The Old Manse.408 

17. George William Curtis .414 

Aspirations of Youth.415 

18. N. P. Willis .418 

The Belfry Pigeon .420 

19. Bayard Taylor.422 

Kilimandjaro.424 

20. J. G. Holland . . . . 427 

The Beading of Periodicals.428 

21. Donald G. Mitchell.433 

First Ambition.434 

Extract.438 

22. Daniel Webster .439 

Importance of the Union.441 

23. Edward Everett .443 

The Memory of our Honored Dead .445 

Contemporaneous Writers of the National Period .449 



































STUDIES 


IN 

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN 

LITERATURE. 


DEFINITIONS. 


FIGURES OF SPEECH. 

A figure of speech is a deviation from the literal 
form of expression. 

Figures bear the same relation to discourse that em¬ 
bellishments bear to architecture. 

The figures of speech which are most frequently em¬ 
ployed may be divided into two classes: 

1. Grammatical Figures; 

2. Rhetorical Figures. 

I. GRAMMATICAL FIGURES. 

The chief grammatical figures are Ellipsis, Enallage, 
and Pleonasm. 

1. Ellipsis is the omission of such letters or words as 
are necessary to complete the sense and construction. 

The ellipsis of letters,may be as follows: 
a. Aphaeresis, or the omission of a letter or letters from 
the beginning of a word; as, f gan for began . 




10 


DEFINITIONS. 


b. Syncope, or the omission of a letter or letters from the 

middle of a word; as, lov’d for loved. 

c. Apocope, or the omission of a letter or letters from the 

end of a word; as, tho’ for though. 

The second variety of ellipsis is that of words, par¬ 
ticularly connectives. 

a. The omission of the relative pronoun ; as, This is the 

letter I wrote , for This is the letter which I wrote. 

b. The omission of the conjunction ; as, He came, saw, con¬ 

quered, for He came, and saw, and conquered. 

The third variety of ellipsis is that of an entire clause; 
as, Astonishing! for This is astonishing. 

2. Enallage signifies a change of words. 

The two most common forms of enallage are the fol¬ 
lowing : 

a. The use of one part of speech for another; as, The winds 

blow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle. 

b. The use of one case for another; as, A President than 

whom none was more beloved. 

3. Pleonasm consists in the use of more words than 
are necessary; as, He that hath ears to hear , let him hear. 

II. RHETORICAL FIGURES. 

The chief rhetorical figures are the following: 

1. Simile; 5. Metonymy; 9. Hyperbole; 

2. Metaphor; 6. Synecdoche ; 10. Irony; 

3. Antithesis; 7. Personification; 11. Climax; 

4. Allegory; 8. Apostrophe; 12. Alliteration. 

1. Simile is a comparison of objects based upon re¬ 
semblance; as, 

Friendship is like the sun’s eternal rays. 

2. Metaphor is an implied comparison or an abridged 

simile; as, '• 

Athens, the eye of Greece, 

Mother of arts and eloquence. 


DEFINITIONS. 


11 


3. Antithesis is a comparison based upon contrast; 
as, Ignorance is the curse of God — knowledge, the wing where¬ 
with we fly to heaven. 

4. Allegory is an extended metaphor, in which the 
figure runs through an entire work; as, The Pilgrim's 
Progress. 

Among the varieties of allegory are— 

(a.) Parables, based upon possibilities, as found intheSacred 
Scriptures; 

(b.) Fables, based upon impossibilities, as found in profane 
history. Ex. JEsop's Fables. 

5. Metonymy is a figure in which one object is de¬ 
scribed by the name of another. 

It may exist in four forms : 

(a.) Cause for effect; as, Ye have Moses and the prophets. 
That is, authors for writings. 

(6.) Effect for cause ; as, There is death in the cup. That 
is, death instead of poison. 

(c.) The container for the thing contained; as. The miser 
loves his purse. That is; purse for money. 

(d.) The sign for the thing signified; as, The pen is the 

civilizer of the world. That is, pen for literature , or 
the spread of knowledge. 

6. Synecdoche is a figure in which a name is given 
to an object that suggests more or less than we intend. 

Synecdoche may take either of two forms: 

(a.) A part for the whole ; as, No European keel had entered 
the harbor. That is, keel for vessel. 

(&.) The whole for a part ; as, All the world wondered. That 
is, world for people. 

7 . Personification "is that figure in which the attri¬ 
butes of living beings are ascribed to things inanimate. 

Personification may exist in either of two forms: 

(a.) In the use of an adjective; as, The rippling , laughing 
brooks flow merrily on. 


12 


DEFINITIONS. 


(b.) In the use of a verb; as, How sweet the moonlight sleeps 
upon this bank! 

8. Apostrophe is a figure in which the absent is ad¬ 
dressed as though present. 

Apostrophe may be— 

(a.) Pure Apostrophe; as, 0 Absalom! would God I had 
died for thee! 

{b.) Apostrophe combined with Personification; as, Roll on, 
thou deep and dark blue Ocean ! roll. 

9. Hyperbole is a figure in which the object is either 
exaggerated or disparaged; as, The diamonds in thine eyes 
might furnish crowns for all the queens of earth. 

10. Irony is a figure employed to express the opposite 
of the idea entertained; as, 

For Brutus is an honorable man; 

So are they all—all honorable men. 

11. Climax is a figure in which the strength of the 
thought increases to the close of the sentence; as, The 
stream of literature has swollen into a torrent—augmented 
into ; a river—expanded into a sea. 

12. Alliteration is a repetition of the same initial 
letter; as, Amid the lingering light. 

SENTENCES. 

Sentences are of two principal classes— Grammatical 
and Rhetorical. 

Grammatically, sentences are divided according to 
form and use. 

In form sentences are either Simple, Complex, or Com¬ 
pound. 

A Simple Sentence is one which contains a single 
proposition. 

A Complex Sentence is one which contains a prin- 


DEFINITIONS. 


13 


cipal proposition modified by one or more subordinate 
propositions. 

A Compound Sentence is one which contains two 
or more principal propositions. 

According to their use sentences are either Declarative , 
Interrogative, Imperative , or Exclamatory. 

A Declarative Sentence is one used to affirm or 
deny. 

An Interrogative Sentence is one used to ask a 
question. 

An Imperative Sentence is one used to express a 
command or an entreaty. 

An Exclamatory Sentence is one used in exclama¬ 
tion. 

Rhetorically, sentences are divided into Loose and 
Periodic. 

A Loose Sentence is one which may be separated into 
parts without destroying the sense; as, 

Leaves have their time to fall, | 

And flowers to wither | at the north wind's breath. | 

Remark— Notice that the sentence may end at any one of the 
three points marked, and make sense. 

A Periodic Sentence is one in which the complete 
sense is not expressed until the close; as, 

Over and over again, 

No matter which way I turn, 

I always find in the book of life 
Some lesson that I must learn. 


ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 


Inasmuch as the literature of a language is closely con¬ 
nected with the history of the people speaking that lan¬ 
guage, it is necessary, in order to study understanding^ 
the literature of the English, to become ^familiar with 
those historical events in the life of the English nation 
which bear immediately on the formation and growth 
of the language we speak. 

The origin of the English language is a subject of 
peculiar interest, not only to the student of English, but 
also to the student of general literature. Following the 
ancestral line, he finds himself carried back in imagina¬ 
tion to a period dating many centuries before the Chris¬ 
tian era, when the western part of Europe was overrun 
by nomadic tribes that wandered on until their course 
w r as arrested by the Atlantic Ocean. These people were 
called Celts, and were supposed to have come from Asia 
at so early a period that history bears no record of the 
fact. After the Celts had taken possession of England, 
the country was invaded by the Ronians under Julius 
Caesar. The primitive Britons resisted with all the 
ferocity of their wild natures, but were finally com¬ 
pelled to succumb to the power of the Roman forces. 
This occurred in the year 55 b. c., and for four hundred 
years the Romans held possession of the country, during 
which time they succeeded in establishing their laws 
and customs and in partially civilizing the subjugated 
Celts. 

Those of the Celts who refused to acknowledge the 

14 



ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 15 

Koman sway betook themselves to the mountains of 
Wales and Scotland, preferring to continue in their bar¬ 
barous habits. These rebellious Celts were known as the 
Piets and Scots of Wales and Scotland. In the fifth cen¬ 
tury, when the city of Rome was endangered by the in¬ 
cursions of the Goths and Vandals from the north of 
Europe, the Roman forces were called home to protect 
the Imperial City. After the withdrawal of the Romans 
from England, the half-civilized Celts were left in a help¬ 
less condition. The Scots and Piets came down from the 
mountains, and endeavored to take possession of the 
country. The onty resource of the Celts was to call in 
the assistance of the Anglo-Saxons. On the coast of 
the Baltic Sea—known in modern geography as Jut¬ 
land, Schleswig, and Holstein—lived the Jutes, Angles, 
and Saxons. These people were pirates, and made fre¬ 
quent incursions upon the neighboring coasts. On one 
of their piratical expeditions to the coast of England 
they were invited by the Celts to come and protect 
them against the invasions of the Piets and Scots. The 
invitation was accepted, and, under the leaders Hengist 
and Horsa, the Anglo-Saxons not only routed the in¬ 
vaders, but also took possession of the country. 

The Jutes occupied Kent and the Isle of Wight, but 
their progress was so unimportant that history makes 
little, mention of them. The settlement of the Angles 
and Saxons in England, about the year 451 a. d., is an 
important era in the history of the English language, 
for it was then that the foundation of our language may 
be said to have been laid. 

The minor kingdoms of England, seven in number, 
which were established when first the Angles and Sax¬ 
ons took possession of the country, were, in 827 a. d., 
united into one kingdom, known as the Saxon Hept¬ 
archy. The country took the name of the Angles, Angle- 


16 ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 


land , and the government the name of the Saxons. The 
Heptarchy had been but fairly established when the coun¬ 
try was invaded by the Danes, who held sway twenty- 
eight years, and who succeeded in subjugating die Sax¬ 
ons almost as completely as the Saxons had previously 
subjugated the Celts. But through the influence of the 
Saxon king, Alfred the Great, the leaders of these two 
fierce races were induced to yield to a union, by which 
means the Anglo-Saxon language was preserved, although 
a number of Danish words were received into its vocab¬ 
ulary. 

Another important epoch in the history of our lan¬ 
guage is the year 1066 a. d., rendered so by the invasion 
of England by the Norman French under William, duke 
of Normandy. At an early period the Norsemen, from 
Scandinavia, invaded the northern part of Gaul andAook 
possession, calling the subjugated province Normandy. 
These people brought with them the bravery, daring, 
and fortitude of the North, which, being allied with the 
culture and politeness of the French, produced a people 
superior to the ancestors on either side. William of Nor¬ 
mandy, with his followers, encountered the Anglo-Saxons 
at Senlac, near the city of Hastings, about seventy miles 
south-east of London. The Saxons were routed, and the 
arrogant Norman assumed the government of England. 
This may be regarded as one of the dark periods in the 
history of our language, for the Norman French were 
determined to obliterate every vestige of the Saxon lan¬ 
guage. All social intercourse and all business transac¬ 
tions were to be carried on in the Norman language. 
Any business contract made in the Saxon language was 
to be regarded as illegal. The designs of the Normans 
might have been effected, were not the laws of Nature 
more powerful than those of man. The Saxons and the 
Normans, living on the same soil and being brought to- 


ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 17 

gether in social intercourse, gradually intermarried, and 
by this union the Saxon was raised to his proper social po¬ 
sition. As a result, the Saxon language again prevailed. 

The elements composing the English language at this 
time were the ancient Celtic, the Danish, the Anglo- 
Saxon, and the Norman French. The union of the 
Saxon with the Norman element did not take place 
until the fourteenth century, since which time the lan¬ 
guage has been growing and developing, retaining in its 
grammatical character the Teutonic elements, receiving 
frequent accessions from the Erench, the Latin, and the 
Greek. The English language is therefore composed of 
many parts, the combinations of which are especially 
advantageous to the language, supplying the numerous 
synonyms which render the English so remarkable for 
flexibility of form and variety of expression. 

English literature proper may therefore be said to have 
had its origin during the fourteenth century, though pre¬ 
vious’ to that time the Saxon epic Beowulf had attained 
a place in literature, as had also Caedmon’s Paraphrase of 
the Bible , as well as the writings of Bede and the transla¬ 
tions of King Alfred. 

English Literature may, for the sake of convenience, 
be divided into eight eras, as represented on the monu¬ 
ment, page 18. From the close of the fourteenth cen¬ 
tury to the middle of the fifteenth is included a period 
which embraces the reigns of Henry V., Henry VI., Ed¬ 
ward IV., Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., Henry 
VIII., Edward VI., and Mary. 

During this last-mentioned period, sometimes called 
the Age of Caxton, little was done to improve the litera¬ 
ture of our language. With the exception of Utopia, a 
prose romance written by Sir Thomas More, scarcely 
any of the literary productions of the age survive. 

2 



George Eliot, 
Dickens, Thackeray, 
Fronde, 

Macaulay, Carlyle, 
Mrs. Browning, 
Tennyson, Ingelow. 


AGE OF SCOTT, 1800-1830. 

Byron, Moore, Scott, 
Coleridge, Wordsworth. 


AGE OF JOHNSON, 1750-1800. 

Gray, Goldsmith, Burns, 
Cowper, Johnson. 

AGE OF QUEEN ANNE, 
1700-1750. 

Pope, Addison. 


THE RESTORATION, 
1660-1700. 


Dryden. 


THE COMMONWEALTH, 
1625-1660. 


Milton. 


ELIZABETHAN AGE, 1550-1625. 
Bacon, Shakespeare, 
Spenser. 

AGE OF CHAUCER, 
1350-1400. 

Chaucer. 


ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 

Anglo-Saxon + Norman French. 





















ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


i. 

AGE OF CHAUCER. 

1350 - 1400 . 

Reigns of Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV. 

i 

This may be regarded as the transition period of our 
language from the Old English to the modern form. 
It has sometimes been called the Resurrection English. 
Rich streams were flowing into the language from various 
sources, all of which now began to mingle and harmonize 
in the formation of modern English. Chaucer, who is 
the chief author of the period, encouraged his country¬ 
men to speak and write their mother-tongue, leaving the 
Latin and the French to the learned and the court-fol¬ 
lowers. As a result, the new language became the speech 
of all England, and it has so remained to the present 
day, though many changes have been wrought in it 
even since Chaucer’s time. 


1. GEOFFREY CHAUCER, 

1328 - 1400 . 

The chief and, indeed, the greatest literary represen¬ 
tative of the age in which he lived was Geoffrey Chau¬ 
cer, the son of a London vintner. By most authorities 
the date of his birth is given as the year 1328. He died 
on the 25th of October, 1400. 


/ 


19 




20 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Of Chaucer’s early life and education little is known. 
According to Warton and other authorities, he first en¬ 
tered the University at Cambridge, but afterward removed 
to Oxford, where he completed his collegiate studies, and 
then returned to London. Soon after this he left Eng¬ 
land, and traveled through France, Holland, and other 
portions of Continental Europe for the purpose of add¬ 
ing to his accomplishments of both mind and manners. 
Having returned to London, he entered the Inner Tem¬ 
ple as a student of law, but on account of his beauty of 
person and his graceful and accomplished manners he 
was soon afterward made a page to King Edward III., 
with a stipend of twenty marks per annum, equal to 
about two hundred pounds. 

Chaucer was promoted rapidly from one post to an¬ 
other in the king’s service, and finally he was sent as 
ambassador on several missions to Italy, where, it is 
claimed, he met the famous Italian poet Petrarch at 
Padua. It is thought that this was the turning-point 
in his career, and that his love for the poetry of Italy 
inspired him with the desire to become famous as a 
poet. The Divina Commedia of Dante, the sonnets of 
Petrarch, and the tales of Boccaccio, all had their in¬ 
fluence in forming the captivating style which character¬ 
izes the literary work of Chaucer. Even in some of The 
Canterbury Tales , the most celebrated of his literary pro¬ 
ductions, this same influence of Boccaccio, the most pol¬ 
ished and elegant of Italian story-tellers, is discernible. 

Chaucer’s earlier productions were mainly translations 
from the French and the Italian, but largely changed, 
and in some cases with such additions as to double the 
length of the poems. His fame, however, rests almost 
wholly on The Canterbury Tales , the plan of which seems 
to have been modeled after Boccaccio’s Decameron. In 
the Canterbury Tales , a party of thirty-two “ sundry folk ” 


GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 


21 


meet at an inn and sup together. The landlord suggests 
that they travel together to Canterbury, and, in order to 
shorten the journey and make time pass pleasantly, that. 
each shall tell two stories both in going and in return¬ 
ing, and whoever shall tell the best shall have a supper 
at the expense of the others, the landlord being the 
judge who is to decide as to the merits of the stories. 
Among the personages represented in the poem are a 
knight, a monk, a friar, a nun, a yeoman, a parson, a 
merchant, a clerk, a sergeant-of-law, and others repre¬ 
senting the English life of the time. 

Chaucer’s chief minor poems are The Court of Love , The 
Flower and the Leaf ’ The House of Fame , and Troilus and 
Cresseide. 

CRITICISM BY REY. STOPFORD BROOKE. 

Of Chaucer’s work it is not easy to speak briefly, be¬ 
cause of its great variety. No one could hit off character 
better, and in his Prologue , and in the prologues to the 
several tales, the whole of the new, vigorous English so¬ 
ciety which had grown up since Edward I. is painted 
with astonishing vividness. “ I see all the pilgrims in 
The Canterbury Tales” says Dryden, “ their humors, their 
features, and their very dress, as distinctly as if I had 
supped with them at the Tabard Inn in Southwark.” 
The tales themselves take in the whole range of the poetry 
of the Middle Ages—the legend of the saint, the romance 
of the knight, the wonderful fables of the traveler, the 
coarse tale of common life, the love-story, the allegory, 
the satirical lay, and the apologue. And they are pure 
tales. He is said to have had dramatic power, but he 
has none. He is simply our great story-teller in verse. 
All the best tales are told easily, sincerely, with great 
grace, and yet with so much homeliness that a child 
would understand them. Sometimes his humor is broad, 


22 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


sometimes sly, sometimes gay; sometimes he brings tears 
into our eyes, and he can make us smile or be sad as he 
pleases. 

He had a very fine ear for the music of verse, and 
the tale and the verse go together like voice and music. 
Indeed, so softly flowing and bright are they that to 
read them is like listening in a meadow full of sun¬ 
shine to a clear stream rippling over its bed of pebbles. 
The English in which they are written is almost the 
English of our time; and it is literary English. Chaucer 
made our tongue into a true means, of poetry. He did 
more: he welded together the French and English ele¬ 
ments in our language, and made them into one English 
tool for the use of literature, and all our prose-writers 
and poets derive their tongue from the language of The 
Canterbury Tales. They give him honor for this, but 
still more for that he was the first English artist. Poetry 
is an art, and the artist in poetry is one who writes for 
pure pleasure, and for nothing else, the thing he writes, 
and who desires to give to others the same fine pleasure 
by his poems which he had in writing them. The thing 
he most cares about is that the form in.which he puts 
his thoughts or feelings may be perfectly fitting to the 
subject, and as beautiful as possible; but for this he 
cares very greatly, and in this Chaucer stands apart 
from the poets of his time. Gower wrote with a moral 
object, and nothing can be duller than the form in which 
he puts his tales. The author of Piers Ploughman wrote 
with the object of reform in social and ecclesiastical 
affairs, and his form is uncouth and harsh. Chaucer 
wrote because he was full of emotion and joy in his 
own thoughts, and thought that others would weep and 
he glad with him; and the only time he ever moralizes 
is in the tales of the “ Yeoman ” and the “ Manciple,” 
written in his decay. He is our first English artist. 


GEOFFREY CHAUCER . 


23 


SKETCH OF A POOR PARSON. 


Note. —In general, Chaucer was inclined to write satires on the 
clergy, but the following, taken from The Canterbury Tales, is a re¬ 
deeming sketch. 


A good man was ther of religioun, 

And was a poure Parsoun of a toun ; 

But riche he was of holy thought and werk. 

He was also a lerned man, a clerk 

That Christes gospel trewely wolde preche; 5 

His parischens devoutly wolde he teche. 

Benigne he was and wonder diligent, 

And in adversity ful pacient ; 

And such he was i-proved oftesithes. 

Ful loth were him to curse for his tythes, 10 

But rather wolde he geven out of dowte, 

Unto his poure parischens aboute, 

Of his offrynge, and eek of his substaunce. 

Wyd was his parisch, and houses fer asonder, 

But he ne lafte not for reyne ne thonder, 15 

In siknesse nor in meschief to visite 

The ferreste in his parisehe, moche and lite. 

Upon his feet, and in his hond a staf, 

This noble ensample to his scheep he gaf, 

That first he wroughte, and after that he taughte, :20 

Out of the gospel he tho wordes caughte, 


Notes.— 5. Christes. In Old 
English the possessive case 
was denoted by the termina¬ 
tion es or is. 

6. parischens, parishioners. 

9. i-proved oftesithes, proved 
ofttimes. 

10. curse, contend. 


13. offrynge, dues, 
eek, also. 

15. lafte, left or ceased. 

17. ferreste, farthest. 

moche and lite, great and 
little. 

19. his scheep, his flock. 


Analysis.—7. wonder diligent. What part of speech is wonder ? 
For what word is it substituted ? 

8. ful pacient. Parse both words. 

19. What figure in this line? Give all the modifiers of ensample. 





24 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE . 


And this figure he addede eek therto, 

That if gold ruste, what shall yren do ? 

For if a prest be foul, on whom we truste 

No wonder is a lewed man to ruste; 25 

He sette not his benefice to hyre, 

And leet his scheep encombred in the myre, 

And ran to Londone, unto Seynte Poules, 

To seeken him a chaunterie for soules, 

Or with a bretherhede to ben withholde ,* 30 

But dwelt at hoom, and kepte wel his .folde, 

So that the wolf ne made it not myscarye. 

He was a schepherde and no mercenarie, 

And though he holy were, and vertuous, 

He was to sinful man nought dispitious, 35 

Ne of his speche daungerous ne digne, 

But in his teching discret and benigne. 

To drawe folk to heven by fairnesse, 

By good ensample, this was his busynesse. 

But it were eny person obstinat, 40 

What so he were, of high or lowe estat, 

Him wolde he snybbe scharply for the nones, 

A bettre preest I trowe there nowher non is. 

He waytede after no pompe and reverence, 

He makede him a spiced conscience, 45 

But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve, 

He taughte, and first he folwede it himselve. 


Notes.—23. yren, iron. 

25. lewed, unlearned. 

28. Seynte Poules, St. Paul’s. 
Notice the change in the 
possessive termination. 

30. bretherhede to withholde, 


brotherhood to be enroll¬ 
ed. 

36. digne, high or haughty. 

43. snybbe scharply for the 
nones, snub or rebuke 
sharply for the occasion. 


Analysis.— 27. What figure in this line ? 

28, 29. Point out the modifiers of ran. 

38-39. What is the subject of the sentence? Show what is in 
apposition with this. 

44-47. Write these four lines in modern English. 





CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


25 


CONTEMPORARIES OF THE AGE OF CHAUCER. 

POETS. 

Robert Langland (about 1332-1400).—A secular priest and a 
Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. Author of the Vision of Piers 
Ploughman. 

John Gower (1325?-l408).—Called by Chaucer “Moral Gow¬ 
er.” Author of Speculum Meditantis, Vox Clamantis, and the 
Confessio Amantis. 

John Barbour (1316 ?-1396).—A Scotch poet, archdeacon of 
Aberdeen. His greatest poem is The Bruce. 

PROSE-WRITERS. 

Sir John Mandeville (1300-1372).—The earliest writer of Eng¬ 
lish prose. Studied for the medical profession. Was a traveler 
for thirty-four years. His book, Mandeville's Travels , was the 
first English book published. 

John Wycliffe (1324-1384).—A learned and eloquent preacher. 
Sometimes called “The Morning Star of the Reformation.” 
Educated at Oxford. His chief Latin work is Tnalogus; his 
chief English production, the first English, translation of the 
whole Bible. 


II. 


THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 

1650 - 1025 . 

Keigns of Elizabeth and James I. 

This was the most brilliant period in the history of 
our literature. It produced not only a Spenser, a 
Shakespeare, and a Bacon, but also a host of dramatic 
and other poets whose writings would in any other age 
have placed them in the foremost rank of the literary 
men of their time. Not only during the reign of Eliz¬ 
abeth, but also during that of her successor, King James 
I., did literary genius put forth its most brilliant efforts. 
The invention of printing, the study of classical litera¬ 
ture, the freedom with which all questions were dis¬ 
cussed, the translations from the literature of France 
and Italy, the revised translation of the Scriptures, and 
the general introduction of the inductive philosophy,— 
all had a tendency to encourage literary effort and de¬ 
velop the literary taste of the age. 

It was this age also that witnessed the marvelous 
development of the English drama. The earliest form 
of the drama in England was that known as the Miracle 
Play , or Mystery , which was acted in the churches and 
convents either by the clergy or under their immediate 
supervision. The subjects chosen were usually some 
striking mystery of Scripture, as the Atonement, the Cre¬ 
ation, the Crucifixion , the Deluge, the Resurrection, etc., 
and the only knowledge of Scripture possessed by the 
masses was derived from these plays. About the mid- 
26 


THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 


27 


die of the thirteenth century sometimes a full set of 
plays was acted, setting forth the whole of sacred his¬ 
tory from the Creation to the Day of Judgment. These 
usually continued for about a week. In order to please 
the ignorant and illiterate, the comic element was intro¬ 
duced, and the chief comedian chosen was the Prince of 
the Infernal Regions, who was always represented, accord¬ 
ing to the popular notion, with horns, hoofs, and tail. 

The Miracle Plays were gradually changed into the 
Moralities. Here Justice, Virtue, etc. were substituted 
for The Scripture personages. The object now was to 
teach not religion, but morality. The Devil was still 
retained to furnish the comic features of the play, and 
the contest between him and the Vice represented in the 
play furnished the chief amusement to the audience. 

The Moralities formed the basis of the modern drama. 
The serious portions gave us the elements of English 
tragedy, and the comic those of English comedy. But 
previous to the comedy proper came the Interludes , which 
resembled our modern Farce; and of these John Hey- 
wood, who lived in the reign of Henry VIII., was prob¬ 
ably the most noted writer. 

The first representative of the modern drama was the 
first English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister , a picture of 
London life, written by Nicholas Udall about the mid¬ 
dle of the sixteenth century. Udall was a Lutheran 
and head-master of Eton College, where he made him¬ 
self notorious for his cruel floggings. The first Eng¬ 
lish tragedy is supposed to have been Gorboduc, or the 
old British story Ferrex and Porrex, dramatized by Sack- 
ville and Norton, and acted in 1561 by the students of 
the Inner Temple. New interest was given to the plays 
by the introduction of real human characters instead of 
continuing the representation of the abstract virtue^; 
and from this time forward the English drama made 


28 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


such rapid strides that in a few years the magnificent 
creations of Shakespeare’s genius took the place of the 
grotesque drolleries of Hey wood, and the English court 
and the English people could sit and laugh at the rol¬ 
licking humor of the broadest comedy or tremble at the 
stirring passion of the greatest tragedies the world has 
ever known. 

The first English theatre was built at Blackfriars, in 
London, in 1576. It was merely a round wooden wall, 
enclosing an open space, except that occupied by the 
stage, which was covered. The Globe Theatre, which was 
built for Shakespeare, was erected in 1594. It was the 
model after which nearly all others were patterned. 
The exterior was hexagonal, and the interior circular. 
The scenery was of the rudest description. A change 
of scene was announced by hanging out a placard with 
the name of the place—Padua, Paris, or some other city 
—painted on it. The audience consisted of groundlings , 
who occupied the pit, and the gallants , who sat in two 
rows on the stage, the actors playing between them. 
The actors, of whom Shakespeare and the scholarly 
Ben Jonson were representatives, also wrote for the 
stage. The two callings were nearly always united. 


2. EDMUND SPENSER, 

1553 - 1599 . 

One of. the most illustrious representatives of the Eliz¬ 
abethan era of English literature was Edmund Spenser, 
born in East Smit'hfield, London, in 1553. His parents 
were poor, and young Spenser entered Pembroke Col¬ 
lege, Cambridge, as a “sizar,” or charity student, in 
1569, and remained at college until he took his degree 
of M. A', in 1576, seven years later. 



EDMUND SPENSER. 


29 


While at college his companion was the scholarly 
Gabriel Harvey, who exerted no small influence in 
shaping Spenser’s future career. After leaving college, 
Spenser went to the north of England, and having been 
rejected by a lady whom he calls Rosalind, and to whom 
he had avowed his love, he again repaired to London, 
where his friend Harvey introduced him to the chival- 
ric and accomplished Sir Philip Sidney, who in turn 
encouraged the poet and inspired him to grander 
efforts. 

Spenser’s first great poem was a pastoral called The 
Shepherd’s Calendar , which he dedicated to Sidney. Sir 
Philip urged him to write something higher and better 
than this pastoral, and Spenser then, after ten years, pro¬ 
duced the Faerie Queene , his grandest work, an extended 
allegory, full of half-concealed beauty and noted for its 
wealth of imagery, in which the virtues of temperance, 
chastity, justice, etc. are set forth in the persons of 
knights. The poem was dedicated to- the Queen, and 
was written in a peculiar versification, since known as 
the “ Spenserian stanza.” 

In 1582 the Queen gave to Spenser a grant of land in 
Ireland, but also obliged him to live on it; which really 
banished him from England. He married at the age 
of forty-one. Four years later he was driven from his 
home by the Irish rebellion; his castle was burned, and 
with it one of his children. Crushed by his grief, he 
fled with his family to England, and in January, 1599, 
the gentle and sensitive poet died. He was buried with 
great ceremony by the side of Chaucer in Westminster 
Abbey. 

The greatest of Spenser’s other poems were Hymns of 
Heavenly Love, Heavenly Beauty, his admirable Sonnets, 
and Epithalamion, the grandest marriage-song in the lan¬ 
guage. 


30 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


CRITICISM BY TAINE. 

Spenser was pre-eminently a creator and a dreamer, 
and that most naturally, instinctively, unceasingly. But 
what distinguishes him from all others is the mode of 
his imagination. Generally, with a poet his mind fer¬ 
ments vehemently and by fits and starts; his ideas 
gather, jostle each other, suddenly appear in masses 
and heaps, and burst forth in sharp, piercing, concen- 
trative words; it seems that they need these sudden 
accumulations to imitate the unity and life-like energy 
of the objects which they produce. At least almost all 
the poets of that time, Shakespeare at their head, act 
thus. 

Spenser remains calm in the fervor of invention. The 
visions which would be fever to another leave him at 
peace. They come and unfold themselves before him 
easily, entire, uninterrupted, without starts. He is epic 
—that is, a narrator—not a singer like an ode-writer, nor 
a mimic like a play-writer. No modern is more like 
Homer. Like Homer and the great epic-writers, he only 
presents consecutive and noble, almost classical, images 
—so nearly ideas that the mind seizes them unaided and 
unawares. Like Homer, he is always simple and clear; 
he makes no leaps; he omits no arguments; he robs no 
word of its primitive and ordinary meanings; he pre¬ 
serves the natural sequence of ideas. Like Homer, 
again, he is redundant, ingenuous, even childish. He 
says everything; he puts down reflections which we 
have made beforehand; he repeats without limit his 
grand ornamental epithets. We can see that he be¬ 
holds objects in a beautiful uniform light, with infinite 
detail; that he wishes to show all this detail, never fear¬ 
ing to see his happy dream change or disappear; that 
he traces its outline with a regular movement, never 


EDMUND SPENSER. 


31 


hurrying or slacking. He is even a little prolix—too 
unmindful of the public, too ready to lose himself and 
dream about the things he beholds. 

His thought expands in vast repeated comparisons, 
like those of. the old Ionic poet. He develops all the 
ideas which he handles. All his phrases become periods. 
Instead of compressing, he expands. 

Magic is the mould of his mind, and impresses its 
shape on all that he imagines or thinks. Involuntarily, 
he robs objects of their ordinary form. If he looks at a 
landscape, after an instant he sees it quite differently. 
He carries it unconsciously into an enchanted land; the 
azure heaven sparkles like a canopy with flowers, a biped 
population flutters in the balmy air, palaces of jasper 
shine among the trees, radiant ladies appear on carved 
balconies above galleries of emerald. This unconscious 
toil of mind is like the slow crystallization of Nature. 
A moist twig is cast into the bottom of a mine, and is 
brought out again a hoop of diamonds. 

THE BOWER OF BLISS. 

Note. —The following extract, in which the spelling is modern¬ 
ized, is taken from the Faerie Queene. It is but a portion of the 
beautiful description of “The Bower of Bliss.” 

There the most dainty paradise on ground 
Itself doth offer to his sober eye, 

In which all pleasures plenteously abound, 

And none does others’ happiness envy; 

The painted flowers, the trees upshooting high, 

The dales for shade, the hills for breathing space, 

The trembling groves, the crystal running by ; 

Analysis.—2. sober eye. What figure here ? 

3. Why plenteously, rather than plentifully? 

4. Is none in the singular or the plural number ? 

5. 6, 7. Name and explain the figures in these lines. 

7. The crystal running by. Give the meaning. 




32 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

And that which all fair works doth most aggrace, 
The art which all that wrought, appeared in no place. 

One would have thought—so cunningly the rude 
And scorned parts were mingled with the fine— 
That Nature had for wantonness ensued 
Art, and that Art at Nature did repine; 

So striving each th’ other to undermine, 

Each did the other’s work more beautify; 

So differing both in wills, agreed in fine: 

So all agreed through sweet diversity, ^ 

This garden to adorn with all variety. 

And in the midst of all a fountain stood 
Of richest substance that on earth might be, 

So pure and shiny, that the silver flood 
Through every channel running one might see; 
Most goodly it with curious imagery 
Was overwrought, and shapes of naked boys, 

Of which some seemed with lively jollity 
To fly about, playing their wanton toys, 

While others did embay themselves in liquid joys. 


Analysis.—8. And that. Give grammatical construction of that. 

What is the meaning of aggrace ? 

30. What is the object of would have thought ? 

10, 11. so cunningly .... fine. Give grammatical construction. 

13. did repine. Is this the emphatic form, or the ancient form of 
the past tense ? 

14, 15. Give the grammatical construction of each. 

17. Name the modifiers of agreed. 

18. to adorn. Of what is this an adjunct ? 

What figure runs through the second stanza ? 

19-22. Rewrite these lines in natural order. 

23. Most goodly. Modernize. 

24. In v r hat case is shapes f 

25. of which. Should this not be of whom t 

26. To fly about. Should this be to fly or to flee ? 

27. embay. The word is now obsolete. It meant to bathe. 


10 

15 

20 

25 



EDMUND SPENSER. 


33 


And over all, of purest gold, was spread 
A trail of ivy in his native hue; 

For the rich metal was so colored, 

That wight, who did not well advised it view, 

Would surely deem it to be ivy true: 

Low his lascivious arms adown did creep, 

That themselves dipping in the silver dew, 

Their fleecy flowers they fearfully did steep, 

Which drops of crystal seemed for wantonness to weep. 

Infinite streams continually did well 
Out of this fountain, sweet and fair to see, 

The which into an ample laver fell, 

And shortly grew to so great quantity, 

That like a little lake it seemed to be ; 

Whose depth exceeded not three cubits height, 

That through the waves one might the bottom see, 
All paved beneath with jasper shining bright, 

That seemed the fountain in that sea did sail upright. 

And all the margin round about was set 
With shady laurel trees, thence to defend 
The sunny beams, which on the billows beat, 

And those which therein bathed might offend. 


Analysis. —28, 29. Transpose and rewrite these two lines. 

34. silver dew. Explain and point out the figure. 

35. fleecy flowers. What figure? Notice the alliteration. 

36. What is the antecedent of which ? In what case is drops t 

37. did well. What is the modern word ? 

38. fair to see. That is, fair to be seen—so used by poetic license. 

39. Note the use of The before which. What is the meaning of laver ? 
41. Parse like. What figure in the line? 

44. All paved. Parse all; also beneath and bright. 

45. Reconstruct this line so as to develop the meaning. 

46. Parse round about. 

47. to defend, to keep off. Give the etymology of the word. Give 
the meaning of thence. 

48. 49. Name the antecedent of which in each line. 

49. Explain the meaning of this line. 

3 


30 

35 

40 

45 




3. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, 

1564 - 1616 . 

The brightest name that adorns the Elizabethan 
period of English literature, indeed one of the brightest 
in the whole history of English letters, is that of Wil¬ 
liam Shakespeare, who was born on the 23d of April, 
1564, at Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, Eng¬ 
land. His father, John Shakespeare, was a wool-comber 
or glover, whose social position had been somewdiat 
elevated by his marriage with a rustic heiress, Mary 
Arden. 

But little is known of the boyhood of Shakespeare. 
The morals of the time were not of a high standard, and 
Shakespeare’s youthful life was not above the average. 
At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, who 
was almost eight years older than himself. She was the 
daughter of a yeoman living within a mile of Stratford. 

About the year 1587 he removed to London, where'he 
became a member of the Globe Theatre, with which he 
retained connection as an actor and a stockholder to the 
time of his retirement to Stratford in 1611, nearly twen¬ 
ty-five years later. As an actor, however, Shakespeare 
never became either remarkably successful or popular. 
Like most young men of his calling at that time, he 
rendered himself doubly useful in his connection with 
the theatre as an actor and as an arranger of pieces. 

Shakespeare’s first successful literary work was, doubt¬ 
less, that of adapting old plays to the requirements of 
his own theatre. But he soon tired of this sort of work, 
and, relying upon his own genius, he soon surpassed 

34 


WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 


35 


both his predecessors and his contemporaries as a writer 
of dramatic poetry. Most of his plots are borrowed— 
some from Plutarch, some from Holinshed’s Chronicle, 
some from novels and romances, and some from older 
dramas. 

Shakespeare’s best-known works consist of thirty- 
seven dramas, which may be divided into tragedies, 
comedies, and historical plays. Among his best trag¬ 
edies are Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth , and King Lear ; among 
the comedies, The Merchant of Venice, Midsummer Night’’s 
Dream, and As You Like It ; and among the historical 
plays, King Richard III.-, King Henry VI., Julius Caesar, 
and King Henry V. 

Shakespeare died at Stratford in the year 1616, on the 
23d of April, the fifty-second anniversary of his birth¬ 
day, and was buried in that village. His grave was first 
marked by a plain stone, the inscription on which, said 
to have been written by Shakespeare himself, was as 
follows: 


“Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear 
To dig the dust enclosed here. 

Blest be the man that spares these stones, 
And curst be he that moves my bones!” 


CRITICISM BY DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

This, therefore, is the praise of Shakespeare, that his 
drama is the mirror of life; that he who has mazed his 
imagination, in following the phantoms which other 
writers raise up before him, may here be cured of his 
delirious ecstasies by reading human sentiments in 
human language, by scenes from which a hermit may 
estimate the transactions of the world, and a confessor 

predict the progress of the passions. 

If there be, what I believe there is, in every nation, a 


36 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


style which never becomes obsolete, a certain mode of 
phraseology so consonant and congenial to the analogy 
and principles of its respective language as to remain 
settled and unaltered, this style is probably to be sought 
in the common intercourse of life among those who speak 
only to be understood, without ambition of elegance. 
The polite are always catching modish innovations, and 
the learned depart from established forms of speech in 
hope of finding or making better; those who wish for 
distinction forsake the vulgar when the vulgar is right; 
but there is a conversation, above grossness and below 
refinement, where propriety resides, and where this poet 
seems to have gathered his comic dialogue. He is, there¬ 
fore, more agreeable to the ears of the present age than 
any other author equally remote, and, among his other 
excellences, deserves to be studied as one of the original 
masters of our language. 

TRIAL-SCENE FROM “ THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.” 

The following extract is taken from Scene 2, Act IV., of the Mer¬ 
chant of Venice, one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. 

Enter Portia, dressed like a doctor of laws. 

Duke. Give me your hand. Come you from old Bellario ? 

Portia. I did, my lord. 

Duke. You are welcome. 

Are you acquainted with the difference 

That holds this present question in the court? 5 

Por. I am informed throughly of the cause. 

Which is the merchant here and which the Jew? 

Duke. Antonio and Shylock, both stand forth. 

Por. Is your name Shylock ? 


Notes.— 4, 5. the difference that 
holds, etc. That is, the cause 
of the dispute. 


6. throughly, thoroughly. 
8. Antonio, the merchant. 
Shylock, the Jew. 




WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 


37 


Shylock. Shylock is my name. 10 

For. Of a strange nature is the suit you follow, 

Yet in such rule that the Venetian law 
Cannot impugn you, as you do proceed. 

You stand within his danger, do you not? \To Antonio. 
Antonio. Ay, so he says. 15 

For. Do you confess the bond ? 

Ant. I do. 

For. Then must the Jew be merciful. 

Shy. On what compulsion must I ? Tell me that. 

For. The quality of mercy is not strained; 20 

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed; 

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes ; 

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes 

The throned monarch better than his crown; 25 

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 

The attribute to awe and majesty, 

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; 

But mercy is above this sceptered sway, 

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, 30 

It is an attribute to God himself; 

And earthly power doth then show likest God’s 
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, 

Though justice be thy plea, consider this, 


Notes.— 12. in such rule, strictly 
according Jto the form. 

13. impugn, call in question. 


22. twice blessed, doubly blessed. 
26. shows, expresses, symbolizes. 
32. show,, appear. 


Analysis.—10. What is the subject of the sentence? 

14. within his danger. Explain. 

18, 19. In which line does must express obligation or compulsion? 

21. Give the case of rain. 

22. Upon the place beneath. What does this phrase modify ? 

24. * Tis mightiest in the mightiest. Explain. 

28. Wherein doth sit, etc. Is the sentence correct ? 

30. enthroned. Why is the accent-mark placed on ed? What 
figure in the line? 

34. What is the mode of be ? 





38 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


That in the course of justice none of us 35 

Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy; 

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much 
To mitigate the justice of thy plea, 

Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice 40 

Must needs give sentence ’gainst the merchant there. 

Shy. My deeds upon my head! I crave the law, 

The penalty and forfeit of my bond. 

Por. Is he not able to discharge the money ? 

Bassanio. Yes, here I tender it for him in the court; 45 
Yea, twice the sum; if that will not suffice, 

I will be bound to pay it ten times o’er, 

On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart. 

If this will not suffice, it must appear 

That malice bears down truth. And I beseech you, 50 

Wrest once the law to your authority: 

To do a great right, do a little wrong, 

And curb this cruel devil of his will. 

Por. It must not be. There is no power in Venice 
Can alter a decree established: 55 

’Twill be recorded for a precedent, 

And many an error by the same example 
Will rush into the state. It cannot be. 

Shy. A Daniel come to judgment; yea, a Daniel! 

O wise young judge, how I do honor thee! 60 


Notes. —37. that same prayer, 
the Lord’s Prayer. 

44. discharge the money, dis¬ 
charge the debt. 


50. malice bears down truth, 

malice overcomes honesty. 

51. Wrest once, turn aside for 

once. 


Analysis. —38. I have spoke. Modernize. 

40. What is the case of Which ? What is the meaning of the ex¬ 
pression, Which if thou follow , etc. ? 

41. What is the use of the apostrophe in ’gainst f 

42. Supply the ellipsis. 

52. to do , etc. What does it modify ? 

55. What is the subject of can alter ? 





39 


WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 

Por. I pray you, let. me look upon your bond. 

Shy. Here ’tis, most reverend doctor, here it is. 

Por. Shylock, there’s thrice thy money offered thee. 

Shy. An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven. 

Shall I lay perjury upon my soul ? 65 

No, not for Venice. 

Por. Why, this bond is forfeit; 

And lawfully by this the Jew may claim 
A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off* 

Nearest the merchant’s heart.—Be merciful; 70 

Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond. 

Shy. When it is paid according to the tenor. 

It doth appear you are a worthy judge; 

You know the law, your exposition 

Hath been most sound: I charge you by the law, 75 

Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar, 

Proceed to judgment. By my soul I swear 
There is no power in the tongue of man 
To alter me: I stay here on my bond. 

Ant. Most heartily I do beseech the court 80 

To give the judgment. 

Por. Why, then, thus it is; 

You must prepare your bosom for his knife. 

Shy. O noble judge! O excellent young man! 

Por. For the intent and purpose of the law 85 

Hath full relation to the penalty, 

Which here appeareth due upon the bond. 

Shy. ’Tis very true: O wise and upright judge! 


Notes.— 61. let me look upon, 
let me examine. 

72. according to the tenor, ac¬ 
cording to the intent. 


74. your expositon, your state¬ 
ment of the law. 

86. Hath full relation, applies 
fully. 


Analysis. —63. there’s. Give grammatical construction. 
76. Point out the figure in this line. 

78. Parse the word there. 

80. Name the modifiers of do beseech. 





40 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


How much more elder art thou than thy looks ! 

Por. Therefore, lay bare your bosom. 90 

Shy. Ay, his breast: 

So says the bond:—Doth it not, noble judge?— 

Nearest his heart,—those are the very words. 

Por. It is so. Are there balance here to weigh 
The flesh ? 95 

Shy. I have them ready. 

Por. Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge, 

To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death. 

Shy. Is it so nominated in the bond ? 

Por. It is not so expressed; but what of that? 100 

’Twere good you do so much for charity. 

Shy. I cannot find it; ’tis not in the bond. 

Por. You, merchant, have you anything to say? 

Ant. But little; I am armed, and well prepared. 

Give me your hand, Bassanio; fare you well I 105 

Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you ; 

For herein Fortune shows herself more kind 
Than is her custom: it is still her use 
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth, 


Notes. —89. more elder. This 
was the old form, though 
double comparatives are not 
allowable in modern Eng¬ 
lish. 


94. balance. This is evident¬ 
ly the same as the present 
word balances. 

97. Have by, have present. 

99. nominated, expressed, named. 


Analysis.—89. What verb is understood after looks ? 

93. Nearest his heart. What is the construction ? 

97. on your charge. Give the meaning. 

98. To stop his wounds. What figure ? 

do bleed. In what mode is this verb ? 

101. Modernize the line. Give the mode of were. 

103. You, merchant. Give the case of each word. 

105. fare you well. How is this expressed at present ? 

106. I am fallen. Modernize. 

109. outlive. Give the grammatical construction. Give the mod¬ 
ifiers of to let. 





WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 


41 


To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow 110 

An age of poverty: from which lingering penance 
Of such a misery doth she cut me off. 

Commend me to your honorable wife; 

Tell her the process of Antonio’s end ; 

Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death; 115 

And when the tale is told, bid her be judge 
Whether Bassanio had not once a love. 

Repent but you that you shall lose your friend, 

And he repents not that he pays your debt; 

For if the Jew do cut but deep enough, 120 

I’ll pay it presently with all my heart. 

Bas. Antonio, I am married to a wife 
Which is as dear to me as life itself; 

But life itself, my wife, and all the world, 

Are not with me esteemed above thy life: 125 

I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all 
Here to this devil, to deliver you. 

Por. Your wife would give you little thanks for that, 

If she were by, to hear you make the offer. 

Gratiano. I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love: 130 

I would she were in heaven, so she could 
Entreat some power to change this currish Jew. 

Nerissa . ’Tis well you offer it behind her back ; 

The wish would make else an unquiet house. 

Shy. [Aside.] These be Christian husbands. I have 135 
a daughter; 


Notes.— 115. speak me fair, 
speak well of m5. 

117. a love, a dear friend. 

121. presently, soon, immedi¬ 
ately. 

123. which. In the older Eng¬ 
lish which is frequently 
used, as in this instance, 
for who. 


125. esteemed above thy life, 
more than I esteem thy 
life. 

130. protest, avow, declare earn¬ 
estly. 

133. behind her back, unknown 

to her. 

134. would make else, would 

otherwise make. 


Analysis.—112. cut me off. Parse the words. 





42 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Would any of the stock of Barrabas 

Had been her husband rather than a Christian !— 

[. Aloud .] We trifle time; I pray thee pursue sentence. 
For. A pound of that same merchant’s flesh is thine; 
The court awards it, and the law doth give it. 

Shy. Most rightful judge! 

For. And you must cut this flesh from off his breast; 
The law allows it, and the court awards it. 

Shy. Most learn Adjudge! A sentence! Come, prepare. 
For. Tarry a little: there is something else. 

This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood; 

The words expressly are “ a pound of flesh ” : 

Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh; 

But in the cutting it, if thou dost shed 
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods 
Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate 
Unto the state of Venice. 

Gra. O upright judge!—Mark, Jew:—0 learned judge! 
Shy. Is that the law ? 

Por. Thyself shall see the act: 

For, as thou urgest justice, be assured 

Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest. 

Gra. O learned judge!—Mark, Jew:—a learned judge! 
Shy. I take this offer, then : pay the bond thrice 
And let the Christian go. 

Bas. Here is the money. 

For. Soft! 

The Jew shall have all justice; soft!—no haste.— 

He shall have nothing but the penalty. 

Gra. O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge! 

For. Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh. 

Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more 


Analysis. —136. Give the grammatical construction of would. 
137. Give the grammatical construction of had been. 

149. the cutting it. Why is of omitted before it? 

151. What is the meaning of confiscate? 

162. Soft. What part of speech ? 

164. What part of speech is but? 


140 

145 

150 

155 

160 

165 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 


43 


But just a pound of flesh. If thou cutt’st more 
Or less than a just pound, be it so much 

As makes it light or heavy in the substance, 170 

Or the division of the twentieth part 

Of one poor scruple—nay, if the scale do turn 

But in the estimation of a hair— 

Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate. 

Gra. A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew! 175 

Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip. 

Por. Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture. 

Shy. Give me my principal, and let me go. 

Bas. I have it ready for thee; here it is. 

Por. He hath refused it in the open court: 180 

He shall have merely justice and his bond. 

Gra. A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!— 

I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word. 

Shy. Shall I not have barely my principal ? 

Por. Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture, 185 

To be so taken at thy peril, Jew. 

Shy. Why, then the devil give him good of it! 

I’ll stay no longer question. 

Por. Tarry, Jew; 

The law hath yet another hold on you. 190 

It is enacted in the laws of Venice,— 

If it be proved against an alien, 

That by direct or indirect attempts 
He seek the life of any citizen, 


Notes.—168. but just, than just. 

170. in the substance, in the 
weight. 

176. on the hip. This expres¬ 
sion seems to be taken 
from the wrestling arena, 


and was used to indicate 
the advantage one contest¬ 
ant had over the other. 

188. I’ll stay no longer ques¬ 
tion, I’ll contend no long¬ 
er. 


Analysis. —169. a just pound. Give the meaning. 

182, 183. Daniel and Jew are both independent; how does their 
construction differ? 

90. hath .... you. Are the two styles of speech the same ? 





44 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


The party ’gainst the which he doth contrive 195 

Shall seize one half his goods; the other half 
Conies to the privy coffer of the state; 

And the offender’s life lies in the mercy 
Of the duke only, ’gainst all other voice. 

In which predicament, I say, thou stand’st: 200 

For it appears, by manifest proceeding, 

That indirectly and directly too 

Thou hast contrived against the very life 

Of the defendant; and thou hast incurred 

The danger formerly by me rehearsed. 205 

Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the duke. 

Gra. Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself; 

And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state, 

Thou hast not left the value of a cord; 

Therefore thou must be hanged at the state’s charge. 210 
Duke. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit, 

I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it: 

For half thy wealth, it is Antonio’s; 

The other half comes to the general state, 

Which humbleness may drive unto a fine. 215 

Por. Ay, for the state, not for Antonio. 

Shy. Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that: 

You take my house when you do take the prop 
That doth sustain my house; you take my life 
When you do take the means whereby I live. 220 

Por. What mercy can you render him, Antonio? 

Gra. A halter gratis; nothing else, for God’s sake. 

Ant. So please my lord the duke, and all the court, 


Notes. —197. privy coffer, pri¬ 
vate treasury. 

215. Which humbleness may, 


etc., Which humility may 
change to a fine. 

216. the state, the government. 


Analysis. —212. thou ask. Are these words of the same form ? 
213. half thy wealth, it, etc. Parse half and it. 

218. do take. Is this the emphatic form of the verb ? 

223. so please my lord. Supply ellipsis. 





WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 


45 


To quit the fine for one half of his goods, 

I am content, so he will let me have 225 

The other half in use, to render it, 

Upon his death, unto the gentleman 
That lately stole his daughter: 

Two things provided more, that, for this favor, 

He presently become a Christian; 230 

The other, that he do record a gift, 

Here in the court, of all he dies possessed, 

Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter. 

Duke. He shall do this, or else I do recant 
The pardon that I late pronounced here. 235 

Por. Art thou contented, Jew? What dost thou say? 

Shy. I am content. 

Por. Clerk, draw a deed of gift. 

Shy. I pray you give me leave to go from hence; 

I am not well. Send the deed after me, 240 

And I will sign it. 

Duke. Get thee gone, hut do it. 

Gra. In christening thou shalt have two godfathers. 

Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more, 

To bring thee to the gallows, not the font. [Exit Shylock.\ 245 
Duke. Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner. 

Por. I humbly do desire your grace of pardon: 

I must away this night toward Padua, 

And it is meet I presently set forth. 


Notes. —224. to quit, to remit or 
excuse. 

225. so, provided. 

234. recant, recall. 

244. ten more. This refers to a 
hangman’s jury of twelve. 


246. entreat, ask or invite. 

247. your grace of pardon, the 

pardon of your grace. 

249. meet I presently set forth, 
proper that I set forth 
soon. 


Analysis. —226. What does to render , etc. modify ? 
230. Give the meaning of ’presently. 

232. of all he dies possessed. Give the meaning. 

245. Give the meaning of font. 

248. must away. Give grammatical construction. 





46 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Duke. I am sorry that your leisure serves you not.— 250 

Antonio, gratify this gentleman, 

For, in my mind, you are much bound to him. 

[Exeunt Duke and his train.] 

Bas. Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend 
Have by your wisdom been this day acquitted 255 

Of grievous penalties; in lieu whereof, 

Three thousand ducats, due unto the Jew 
We freely cope your courteous pains withal. 

Ant. And stand indebted, over and above, 

In love and service to you evermore. 260 

Por. He is well paid that is well satisfied; 

And I, delivering you, am satisfied, 

And therein do account myself well paid : 

My mind was never yet more mercenary. 

I pray you, know me when we meet again; 265 

I wish you well, and so I take my leave. 


Notes. —254. Notice that Bas- 
sanio mentions himself 
first, the two having been 
under penalty. 

258. cope, requite. 


258. withal, with. 

259. over and above, in addi¬ 

tion thereto. 

264. more mercenary, anxious 
for more reward or pay. 


Analysis.—261. Give the modifiers of he. 

262. Give the construction of delivering. 

263. Parse paid. 





L FRANCIS BACON, 

1561 - 1026 . 

Sir Francis Bacon, the great English philosopher, 
known also as Lord Bacon, was the son of Sir Nicholas 
Bacon, lord keeper of the great seal. He was born in 
London, January 22, 1561. When thirteen years old he 
entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated 
at the early age of sixteen, and it is said that even at 
this age he had already become disgusted with the 
philosophy of Aristotle, which then held sway in all 
English colleges. 

After graduating, Bacon went to France, where he 
spent three years, mostly at Poictiers. The sudden 
death of his father in 1579 caused Bacon to return at 
once to England. He was anxious to hold some posi¬ 
tion under the government which would give him leis¬ 
ure to devote to the study of literature and philosophy, 
but his uncle, Lord Burleigh, gave him neither encour¬ 
agement nor assistance, and he therefore became a stu¬ 
dent of law, in which profession he afterward won great 
distinction, and became the most admired teacher of 
legal science and the most learned advocate of his time. 

He was for some time a member of the House of 
Commons, where he displayed great power as an orator, 
but his moral principles were all through life uncertain 
and unreliable. In one of his speeches in Parliament 
he greatly distinguished himself as the popular advo¬ 
cate against certain subsidies asked by the Crown, but 
when he learned that the Queen was offended at his 
speech, he quickly abandoned his position and took 

47 


48 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


the other side. It was on account of these .moral ob¬ 
liquities that Pope characterized him as “the wisest, 
brightest, meanest of mankind.” 

By truckling continually to the favorites of the Crown, 
Bacon rose rapidly in favor at the court, and in 1617 he 
reached the height of his- ambition, when he was made 
lord high chancellor of England and Baron Verulam. 
The latter title was three years later changed to that 
of Viscount St. Albans. 

Bacon’s decisions while acting as lord chancellor were 
so openly influenced by the Crown, and he became the 
recipient of so many presents and bribes, that Parlia¬ 
ment was at length compelled to interfere. Twenty- 
three charges of gross corruption as a judge were pre¬ 
sented against him by the House of Lords, to which 
he at once plead guilty in a confession, and begged for 
mercy, saying, “ I beseech your lordships to be merciful 
to a broken reed.” The sentence deprived him of his 
office as chancellor, fined him forty thousand pounds, 
and imprisoned him in the Tower during the King’s 
pleasure; it also forbade him to come within twelve 
miles of the court. But little of the sentence, however, 
was ever enforced except that of depriving him of his 
office. Five years later, in 1626, he died, and was 
buried, at his own request, by the side of his mother 
in the church at St. Albans. 

Bacon was celebrated for his learning, but he is espe¬ 
cially noted and honored as “the father of inductive 
philosophy.” His greatest work is entitled Novum Or- 
ganum (“ The New Instrument ”), in which he expounds 
the methods to be pursued in the investigation of truth 
by induction. His most popular writings are his Es¬ 
says. 


FRANCIS BACON 


49 


CRITICISM BY TAINE. 

Bacon’s mode of thought is by symbols, not by anal¬ 
ysis ; instead of explaining his idea, he transposes and 
translates it—translates it entire, to the smallest details, 
enclosing all in the majesty of a grand period or in the 
brevity of a striking sentence. Thence springs a style 
of admirable richness, gravity, and vigor, now solemn 
and symmetrical, now concise and piercing, always 
elaborate and full.of color. There is nothing in Eng¬ 
lish prose superior to his diction. When he has laid 
up his store of facts, the greatest possible, on some past 
subject, on some entire province of the mind, on the 
whole anterior philosophy, on the general condition 
of the sciences, on the power and limits of the human 
reason, he casts over all this a comprehensive view, as 
it were a great net—brings up a universal idea, con¬ 
denses his idea into a maxim, and hands it to us with 
the words, “ Verify and profit by it.” 

FRIENDSHIP. 

Note. —The following extract is taken from one of Bacon’s Essays, 
that on “ Friendship.” 

It had been hard for him that spake it to have put 
more truth and untruth together in few words than in 
that speech, “ Whosoever is delighted in solitude is 
either a wild beast or a god.” For it is most true 
that a natural and secret hatred and aversation towards 5 


Note. —3. whosoever, etc. The I Aristotle, a Greek philoso- 
author of this sentence was | pher. 


Analysis. —1. had been hard. Give the meaning and dispose of 
the verb. 

1, 2. to have put, etc. What is this phrase in apposition with ? 

5. aversation towards. Modernize. 


4 




50 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


society in any man hath somewhat of the savage beast; 
but it is most untrue that it should have any character 
at all of the divine nature, except it proceed, not out of 
a pleasure in solitude, but out of a love and desire to 
sequester a man’s self for a higher conversation, such 10 
as is found to have been falsely and feignedly in some 
of the heathen—as Epimenides the Candian, Numa 
the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, and Apollonius 
of Tyana—and truly and really in divers of the an¬ 
cient hermits and holy Fathers of the Church. 15 

But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how 
far it extendeth ; for a crowd is not company, and faces 
are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling 
cymbal, where there is no love. The Latin adage meet- 
eth with it a little, Magna civitas , magna solitudo (a great 20 
city is a great solitude),—because in a great town friends 


Notes. —10. sequester, to seek 
seclusion. 

conversation, here refers to 
life. 

12. Epimen'ides, a poet and 
philosopher of Crete, who 
lived in the sixth or the 
seventh century. His his¬ 
tory is mythical. He is 
said to have fallen asleep 
in a cave, and on awak¬ 
ing found everything about 
him changed. 

Numa, one of the kings of 
Rome. Reigned b. c. 715- 
672. He desired his sub¬ 
jects to believe that he re¬ 


ceived help in his admin¬ 
istration from the nymph 
Egeria. 

13. Emped'ocles, a Sicilian phil¬ 
osopher, who flourished 
about 450 b. c. Tradition 
says he threw himself into 
the crater of Mount Etna, 
that his mysterious disap¬ 
pearance might be taken 
as a proof of his divine 
origin. 

Apollo / nius, a follower of 
Pythagoras, who flourished 
during the reigns of. Ves¬ 
pasian and Domitian. 

19. meeteth, corresponds. 


Analysis.—8. Substitute a word for except. 

16. But little. Give grammatical construction. 
18, 19. Point out the figures in these lines. 





FRANCIS BACON. 


51 


are scattered, so that there is not that fellowship, for the 
most part, which is in less neighborhoods. But we may 
go further, and affirm most truly that it is a mere and 
miserable solitude to want true friends, without which 
the world is but a wilderness; and even in this sense 
also of solitude, whosoever in the frame of his nature 
and affections is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the 
beast, and not of humanity. 

A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and dis¬ 
charge of the fullness and swellings of the heart, which 
passions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know 
diseases of stoppings and suffocations are the most dan¬ 
gerous in our body; and it is not much otherwise in 
the mind. You may take sarza to open the liver, steel 
to open the spleen, flowers of sulphur for the lungs, 
castoreum for the brain; but no receipt openeth the 
heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart 
griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and what¬ 
soever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of 
civil shrift or confession. 

It is a strange thing to observe how high a rate great 
kings and monarchs do set upon this fruit of friendship 


Notes —25. to want, to lack. I 29. of humanity, of human na- 
27. solitude, loneliness. | ture. 


Analysis. —22. so that there. Parse these words. 

24. Name the phrase in apposition with it. 

28. Give the grammatical construction of he. 

31. Name the antecedent of which. 

32. Give the object of know. 

35. Give the meaning of sarza. 

36, 37. What do the infinitive phrases in these lines modify? What 
are the objective modifiers of take? Dispose of the two words but. 

^ 42. Name the full phrase in apposition with the subject It. 

43. do set. Notice the use of the old form even in prose. 


25 

30 

35 

40 




52 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


whereof we speak—so great as they purchase it many 
times at the hazard of their own safety and greatness. 45 
For princes, in regard of the distance of their fortune 
from that of their subjects and servants, cannot gather 
this fruit except (to make themselves capable thereof) 
they raise some persons to be, as it were, companions 
and almost equals to themselves, which many times 50 
sorteth to inconvenience. The modern languages give 
unto such persons the name of favorites, or privadoes, 
as if it were matter of grace or conversation; but the 
Roman name attaineth the true use and cause thereof, 
naming them particeps curarum [sharers in cares], for 55 
it is that which tieth the knot. And we see plainly 
that this hath been done, not by weak and passionate 
princes only, but by the wisest and most politic that 
ever reigned; who have oftentimes joined to themselves 
some of their servants, whom both themselves have 60 
called friends, and allowed others likewise to call them 
in the same manner, using the word which is received 

between private men. 

It is not to be forgotten what Comines observeth of 
his first master, Duke Charles the Hardy—namely, that 65 
he would communicate his secrets with none, and least 
of all those secrets which troubled him most. Where- 


Notes. —57. passionate, senti¬ 
mental. 

65. Charles the Hardy, Charles 


the Bold, duke of Bur¬ 
gundy, and the rival of 
Louis XI. 


Analysis. —44. so great as. Modernize. 

46-51. Write this sentence in modern English. 

51. sorteth here means “leadeth.” 

60-63. Write in modern English. 

64. It is, etc. Point out the phrase in apposition with It. 

66. communicate his secrets with. What is the present form of ex¬ 
pression ? 






FRANCIS BACON 


53 


upon he goeth on, and saith that towards his latter time 
that closeness did impair and a little perish his under¬ 
standing. Surely, Comines mought have made the 
same judgment also, if it had pleased him, of his sec¬ 
ond master, Louis the Eleventh, whose closeness was 
indeed his tormentor. The parable of Pythagoras is 
dark, but true, “Cor ne edito”—e at not the heart. Cer¬ 
tainly if a man would give it a hard phrase, those that 
want friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of 
their own hearts. But one thing is most admirable 
(wherewith I will conclude this first fruit of friendship), 
which is, that this communicating of a man’s self to his 
friend works two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys, 
and cutteth griefs in halves. For there is no man that 
imparteth his joys to his friend but he joyeth the more, 
and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend but 
he grieveth the less. So that it is, in truth, of operation 
upon a man’s mind of like virtue as the alchemists use 
to attribute to their stone for man’s body, that it work- 
eth all contrary effects, but still to the good and benefit 
of nature. But yet without praying in aid of alchem¬ 
ists, there is a manifest image of this in the ordinary 
course of nature; for, in bodies, union strengtheneth 
and cherisheth any natural action, and, on the other 
side, weakeneth and dulleth any violent impression. 
And even so is it of minds. 

The second fruit of friendship is healthful and sov- 


Notes. —69. perish, enfeeble. I 70. mought, the old form of 
70. Comines, a French historian. I “ might.” 


Analysis. —71. if it had 'pleased. Give the mode of the verb. 
80. redoubleth. Give the modern form. 

88. praying in aid, calling in the aid or help. 

89. image is here used for resemblance. 

93. And even so is it of minds. Rewrite. 


70 

75 

80 

85 

90 




54 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


ereign for the understanding, as the first is for the affec- 95 
tions. For friendship maketh indeed a fair day in the 
affections from storm and tempests, but it maketh day¬ 
light in the understanding, out of darkness and confu¬ 
sion of thoughts. Neither is this to be understood only 
of faithful counsel, which a man receiveth from his 100 
friend; but before you come to that, certain it is that 
whosoever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts, 
his wits and understanding do clarify and break up in 
the communicating and discoursing with another: he 
tosseth his thoughts more easily; he marshaleth them 105 
more orderly; he seeth how they look when they are 
turned into words; finally, he waxeth wiser than him¬ 
self, and that more by an hour’s discourse than by a 
day’s meditation. It was well said by Themistocles to 
the king of Persia “ that speech was like cloth of Arras 110 
opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth ap¬ 
pear in figure; whereby in thoughts they lie but as in 


Notes. —109. Themis'tocles, a 
celebrated Athenian states¬ 
man and general (514-449 
B. c.). 


110. cloth of Arras, named from 
Arras, a town in France; 
the word is equivalent to 
tapestry. 


Analysis. —96-99. For friendship, etc. Explain the sentence and 
name the rhetorical figures. 

101. certain it is that, etc. Parse it. Also give the construction of 
the clause introduced by that. 

103. do clarify, etc. What figure? 

103, 104. in the communicating, etc. Is this correct according to 
present usage? 

104, 105. he tosseth. What figure ? 

105, he marshaleth them. Name the figure. 

107. Give the meaning of waxeth. 

109,110. It... . “that speech,” etc. Explain the grammatical con¬ 
struction. 

110. like cloth. What is the construction ? 

112. they lie. What is the antecedent of they? Dispose of but. 





FRANCTS BACON. 


55 


packs.” Neither is this second fruit of friendship, in 
opening the understanding, restrained only to such 
friends as are able to give a man counsel (they, indeed, 115 
are best) ; but even without that a man learneth of him¬ 
self, and bringeth his own thoughts to light, and whet- 
teth his wits as against a stone, which itself cuts not. 

In a word, a man were better relate himself to a statua 
or picture than to suffer his thoughts to pass in smother. 120 
Add now, to make this second fruit of friendship com¬ 
plete, that other point, which lieth more open, and fall* 
eth within vulgar observation—which is, faithful counsel 
from a friend. Heraclitus saith well, in one of his enig¬ 
mas, “ Dry light is ever the best.” And certain it is that 125 
the light that a man receiveth by counsel from another 
is drier and purer than that which cometh from his own 
understanding and judgment, which is ever infused and 
drenched in his affections and customs: so as there is as 
much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth 130 
and that a man giveth himself as there is between the 
counsel of a friend and of a flatterer; for there is no 


Notes. —119. statua, statue. 

120. to pass in smother, to re¬ 
main suppressed. 

123. vulgar, common, 
counsel, advice. 

124. Heraclitus, a naturalist of 


Ephesus, called the 
“ Weeping Philosopher.” 

125. Dry light—that is, intellect 
unclouded by passion. 

129. so as there is, so that there 
is. 


Analysis.— 114. restrained. Substitute a word. 

11 5. are able. What is the subject ? 

116. but even, etc. What is the grammatical construction? 

117, 118. Point out the figures in the line. 

119, 120. to a statua or picture, etc. Is the expression correct? 
121. to make, etc. What does the phrase modify ?^k 
125. certain it is that, etc. Notice the construction. 

131. that. In what case is this word? 





56 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

such flatterer as is a : man’s self, and there is no such 
remedy against flattery of a man’s self as the liberty of 
a friend. Counsel is of two sorts: the one concerning 
manners, the other concerning business. For the first, 
the best preservative to keep the mind in health is the 
faithful admonition of a friend. The calling of a man’s 
self to a strict account is a medicine sometime too pierc¬ 
ing and corrosive, reading good books of morality is a 
little flat and dead, observing our faults in others is 
sometimes unproper for our case; but the best receipt 
(best, I say, to work, and best to take) is the admoni¬ 
tion of a friend. 

It is a strange thing to behold what gross errors and 
extreme absurdities many (especially of the greater sort) 
do commit for want of a friend to tell them of them, to 
the great damage both of their fame and fortune; for, as 
St. James saith, they are as men “ that look sometimes 
into a glass, and presently forget their own shape and 
favor.” As for business, a man may think, if he will, 
that two eyes see no more than one; or that a gamester 
seeth always more than a looker-on; or that a man in 
anger is as wise as he that hath said over the four and 
twenty letters; or that a musket may be shot off as well 
upon the arm as upon a rest; and such other fond and 
high imaginations to think himself all in all ; but when 


Notes.— 151. favor, appearance. | 156. fond, foolish* 


Analysis. —133. as. Give the grammatical construction. 

135, 136. the one concerning manners. Give the construction* 
139. sometime. Give the modern form. 

142. unproper. Give the modern form. 

145. It .... to behold , etc. Give the grammatical construction. 

147. them of them. What is the antecedent of each them f 

148. both of their fame and fortune. Correct. 

154, 155. To what does four and twenty letters refer? 


135 

140 

145 

150 

155 




FRANCIS BACON 


57 


all is done, the help of good counsel is that which set- 

teth business straight. 

After these two noble fruits of friendship (peace in the 
affections and support of the judgment) followeth the 
last fruit, which is, like the pomegranate, full of many 
kernels; I mean aid, and bearing a part in all actions 
and occasions. Here the best way to represent to life the 
manifold use of friendship is to cast and see how many 
things there are which a man cannot do himself; and 
then it will appear that it was a sparing speech of the 
ancients to say “ that a friend is another himself,” for 
that a friend is far more than himself. Men have their 
time, and die many times in desire of some things 
which they principally take to heart—the bestowing 
of a child, the finishing of a work, or the like. If a 
man have a true friend, he may rest almost secure that 
the care of those things will continue after him; so that 
a man hath, as it were, two lives in his desires. A man 
hath a body, and that body is confined to a place; but 
where friendship is, all offices of life are, as it were, 
granted to him and his deputy, for he may exercise 
them by his friend. How many things are there which 
a man cannot, with any face or comeliness, say or do 
* himself! A man can scarce allege his own merits with 
modesty, much less extol them; a man cannot some¬ 
times brook to supplicate or beg, and a number of the 


Analysis.—162. like the pomegranate. What figure? 

165. to cast. What is the meaning ? 

167. a sparing speech; that is, a moderate speech. 

168. himself. Give grammatical construction. 

168, 169. for that. What is the meaning? 

170. and die many times , etc. Reconstruct. 

171. the bestowing , the disposal. 

177. as it were. Give the grammatical construction. 

182, 183. cannot sometimes brook to supplicate. Give the meaning. 


160 

165 

170 

175 

180 



58 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


like; but all these things are graceful in a friend’s mouth, 
which are blushing in a man’s own. So, again, a man’s 185 
person hath many proper relations, which he cannot put 
off. A man cannot speak to his son but as a father; 
to his wife, but as a husband; to his enemy, but upon 
terms: whereas a friend may speak as the case requires, 
and pot as it sorteth with the person. But to enumerate 190 
these things were endless. I have given the rule: where 
a man cannot fitly play his own part, if he have not a 
friend he may quit the stage. 


Notes.— 185. which are blush¬ 
ing, which cause one to 
blush; fit to make one 
blush. 


185. a man’s own person, a 

man’s own body. 

186. proper, peculiar to one’s self. 
190. sorteth, suits. 


Analysis. —187. but as a father. Give the construction of but, as, 
and father. 

191. were. What is the mode ? 

190-193. I have given, etc. What rhetorical figure here? Give the 
construction of the whole sentence. 


CONTEMPOEANEOUS WEITEES. 

1. DRAMATIC POETS. 

Ben Jonson (1574-1637).—Celebrated as a dramatist. The * 
friend of Shakespeare. Author of Every Man in his Humor, 
Cataline, The Alchemist, and other dramas. 

Christopher Marlowe (1563-1593).—The greatest dramatist 
before Shakespeare. Educated at Cambridge. Author of sev¬ 
eral plays in blank verse— Tambourlaine the Great, Dr. Faus- 
tus, The Jew of Malta, etc. 

Francis Beaumont (1586-1615) and John Fletcher (1576- 
1625).—The authors of fifty-two tragedies and comedies, mostly 
written in joint authorship. Their works were more popular 
in their day than were Shakespeare’s. Among their plays are 
Two Noble Kinsmen, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, Wit without 
Money, etc. 







CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 59 

Philip Massinger (1584-1640).—Author of a number of plays, 
one of which, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, is still acted. 

John Ford (1586-1639).—A melancholy dramatist. Author 
of a number of deep tragedies— The Broken Heart, Love's Sac¬ 
rifice, etc. 

2. NON-DRAMATIC POETS. 

Thomas Sackville (1536-1608).—Earl of Dorset. Author of 
the Mirror for Magistrates and the Story of the Duke of Buck¬ 
ingham. 

Robert Southwell (1560-1595).—Author of Si. Peter's Com¬ 
plaint and other poems. 

Samuel Daniel (1562-1619).—Known as “well-languaged 
Daniel.” Author of Musophilus and A History of the Wars be¬ 
tween the Houses of York and Dancaster. 

Michael Drayton (1563-1631).—Poet-laureate in 1626. Author 
of Polyolbion, The Shepherd’s Garland, and other poems. 

George Herbert (1593-1632).—Often called “Holy George 
Herbert.” Wrote The Temple and a number of other sacred 
poems. 

3. PROSE-WRITERS. 

Roger Ascham (1515-1568).—Teacher of Queen Elizabeth and 
Lady Jane Grey. A graduate of Cambridge. Author of Tox- 
ophilus, in the preface of which he apologizes for writing in 
English. His best work is The Schoolmaster. 

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586).—A gallant soldier and a chi- 
valric gentleman. Educated at Oxford and Cambridge. Author 
of a romance Arcadia, The Defense of Poesie, and many beauti¬ 
ful sonnets. 

Richard Hooker (1553-1600).—A celebrated English divine. 
Wrote Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, the first book of which has 
been pronounced by Hallam to be at this day “ one of the mas¬ 
terpieces of English eloquence.” 

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618).—An accomplished scholar 
and soldier. Author of a History of the World, Narrative of a 
Cruise to Guiana, and a number of poems of merit. He was 
executed by order of King James I. 

Robert Burton (1578-1640).—Rector of Segrave. Author of 
a quaint and witty book, The Anatomy of Melancholy, by Democ¬ 
ritus Junior. * 


III. 

AGE OF MILTON. 

1625 - 1660 . 

Reign of Charles T. and Protectorate of Cromwell. 

This era was characterized by continual strife and 
controversy, both political and religious. The trial and 
execution of Charles I., the civil war between the Cav¬ 
aliers and the Roundheads, the rise and fall of the Pro¬ 
tectorate of Cromwell,—all tended to prevent the pro¬ 
duction of any literature except that of a controversial 
character. A few great authors, however, came to the 
surface, whose excellent works have added largely to 
the wealth of our literature. Among these the most 
noted was John Milton, and with him may be named 
such worthies as Izaak Walton, Thomas Fuller, and 
Jeremy Taylor. 


5. JOHN MILTON, 

• 1608 - 1674 . 

John Milton, one of the greatest of English poets, 
was horn in London, December 9,1608. His father was 
a.scrivener by profession and a man of fine musical taste 
—a talent which his son John inherited, and which, 
under the instruction of his father, made him an ac¬ 
complished • organist. 

It is said that Milton began to write verse before he 
was eleven years of age, and at the age of’twelve he 
60 



JOHN MILTON. 


61 


often studied late into the night—thus, with the imper¬ 
fect light then used, so injuring his eyesight that at the 
age of forty-six he became totally blind. He entered 
the University at Cambridge in the year 1625. Here, 
on account of his personal beauty and delicate taste, he 
was nicknamed the “ Lady of Cambridge.” He spent 
seven years at the University, when he took his master’s 
degree. Leaving Cambridge in 1632, he went to Horton, 
where he spent five years in leisure and study. It was 
during this time that he wrote some of his finest poems, 
among them 27 Allegro and II Penseroso in 1632, Comus , 
which appeared in 1634, and Lycidas , written in 1637. 

In 1638 he began a tour of Continental Europe, visit¬ 
ing France and Italy, where his strong letters of recom¬ 
mendation and his great culture made his society court¬ 
ed by the most brilliant Italian wits. His stay abroad 
continued only fifteen months, for Milton was a Puritan, 
and when the Thirty Years’ War began he hastened 
home and espoused the cause of the people against 
the prelates and the Royalists. 

Milton, on his return to England in 1639, took a 
house in London and began teaching the children of 
his sister, Mrs. Philips. His success as a teacher soon 
attracted other pupils, and he continued this work for 
eight years. In 1643 he married Mary Powell, but she 
left him at the end of a month, and, though frequently 
solicited to return, she refused. In about a year, how¬ 
ever, when she found Milton advocating the right of 
divorce, the intervention of friends secured a reconcil¬ 
iation, and she returned. 

Milton held the post of Latin secretary under the Pro¬ 
tectorate of Cromwell, and during this time he wrote his 
political works. When Charles II. was placed on the 
throne the post of Latin secretary was again tendered 
to Milton, though he was one of the strongest opponents 


62 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


of royalty, but he refused to accept the position, and re¬ 
tired to private life, where he again devoted himself to 
poetry. It was during this time that he wrote his mas¬ 
terpiece, Paradise Lost , which was completed in 1665 and 
published in 1667. The manuscript of this poem is said 
to have been sold for twenty-eight pounds. 

The later years of Milton’s life were spent in gloom and 
disappointment. The 'cause for which he had written so 
spiritedly and contended so persistently was lost by the 
fall of Cromwell and the accession of Charles II. to the 
throne; and, to complete the measure of his infirmities, 
the great poet became wholly blind in the year 1662. 
His death occurred in November, 1674, when he was 
buried by the side of his father, though a monument 
was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey. 

His greatest prose work was styled Areopagitica , a 
plea for the freedom of the press. In addition to the 
poems named, he wrote also Paradise Regained , which 
did not, however, rank in any sense with his master¬ 
piece, Paradise Lost. 

CRITICISM BY JOHN RICHARD GREEN. 

The whole genius of Milton expressed itself in the 
Paradise Lost. The romance, the gorgeous fancy, the 
daring imagination which he shared with the Eliza¬ 
bethan poets, the large but ordered beauty of form 
which he had drunk in from the literature of Greece 
and Rome, the sublimity of conception, the loftiness 
of phrase which he owed to the Bible, blended in this 
story £C of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit of that 
forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death into 
the world and all our woe.” It is only when we review 
the strangely-mingled elements which make up the 
poem that we realize the genius which fused them into 
such a perfect whole. The meagre outline of the He- 


JOHN MILTON. 


63 


brew legend is lost in the splendor and music of Mil¬ 
ton’s verse. The stern idealism of Geneva is clothed in 
the gorgeous robes of the Renaissance. If we miss some¬ 
thing of the free play of Spenser’s fancy, and yet more 
of the imaginative delight in their own creations which 
gives so exquisite a life to the poetry of the early dram¬ 
atists, we find in place of these the noblest example 
which our literature affords of the ordered majesty of 
classic form. 


LYCIDAS. 

Rote. —In this poem Milton bewails the loss of a friend, Edward 
King, a native of Ireland, to whom he was warmly attached, and 
who had been his schoolmate at Cambridge. Having graduated, 
King was qualifying himself for the ministry, but in a sea-voyage 
from Chester the ship was wrecked on the Welsh coast, ami King 
was drowned. He was noted for his piety, brilliant scholarship, 
and gentleness of character. 

Yet once more, 0 ye laurels, and once more, 

Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, 

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, 

And with forced fingers rude 

Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year, 5 

Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear, 


Rotes.— 3. harsh and crude, 
unripe. 

5. shatter, scatter. 


5. mellowing year, mellowing 

time of year. 

6. constraint, necessity. 


Analysis. — 1. 0 ye laurels. Give the case of ye and laurels. 

2. Ye myrtles. Give the case of ye and myrtles. 44 

What does the word sere modify ? 

4. forced fingers rude. Rotice the arrangement—adjective, noun, 
and adjective—a favorite one with Milton. 

5. mellowing year. What figure? Parse shatter. 

1-5. The whole sentence seems to indicate that Milton feels him¬ 
self compelled to write under constraint and unprepared. 

6. sad occasion dear. Rotice the arrangement. 





64 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE . 


Compels me to disturb your season due: 

For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, 

Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. 

Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew 10 

Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. 

He must not float upon his watery bier 
Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, 

Without the meed of some melodious tear. 

Begin, then, Sisters of the sacred well 15 

That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring; 

Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string: 

Hence, with denial vain, and coy excuse. 

So may some gentle Muse 

With lucky words favor my destined urn; 20 

And as he passes turn, 

And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud. 

For we were nursed upon the selfsame hill; 

Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill; 


Notes.—9. peer, equal. 

10, 11. he knew himself to sing, 
he himself knew how to 
sing. 

12. watery bier, the water which 

bears him up. 

13. welter, roll, 
parching, blistering. 

15. Sisters, the Muses. 

16. Jove, Jupiter. 

18. coy, shy. 


20. urn. This refers to the Gre¬ 
cian and the Bom an method 
of disposing of the ashes of 
the dead. 

23. selfsame hill, Cambridge. 

24. fed the same flock, etc. 

This refers to their close 
companionship. The poet 
represents himself and his 
friend as shepherds, thus 
carrying out the allegory. 


Analysis.—7. compels. What is the subject? Does the verb agree 
only with the nearest nominative or with the whole line ? 

9. Young Lycidas. In what case? 

10. Who would not , etc. Explain the meaning. 

14. meed, tribute. What figure ? 

16. from beneath. Give grammatical construction. 

17. string, the lyre. What figure? 

18. Hence. What part of speech ? 
excuse. In what case ? 

22. bid. Give mode. be. Give mode. 





JOHN MILTON 


65 


Together both, ere the high lawns appeared 25 

Under the opening eyelids of the morn, 

We drove afield, and both together heard 
What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn, 

Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, 

Oft till the star that rose at evening bright 30 

Toward heaven’s descent had sloped his pestering wheel. 
Meanwhile, the rural ditties were not mutb, 

Tempered to the oaten flute; 

Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel 

From the glad sound would not be absent long, 35 

And old Damoetas loved to hear our song. 

But oh ! the heavy change, now thou art gone, 

Now thou art gone, and never must return ! 

Thee, shepherd, the woods and desert caves, 

With wild thyme and the gadding vine o’ergrown, 40 

And all their echoes mourn. 

The willows, and the hazel-copses green, 

Shall now no more be seen 


Notes.— 27. afield, to the field. 
a was formerly used as a 
preposition. 

28. what time, the time when, 
gray-fly, the trumpet-fly. 
sultry horn, the buzzing of 
its wings in the heat of 
noon. 


29. battening, fattening, 
flocks, thoughts. 

33. tempered, modified. 

oaten flute, a flute made of 
an oaten straw. 

•36. Damoetas, a common name 
applied to a herdsman or 
a rustic. 


Analysis.—26. What figure in the line ? 

30, 31. Name the figure in these lines. 

34. What were Satyrs and Fauns f 

37. But oh ! etc. Here begins an apostrophe. Define Apostrophe 
as a figure of rhetoric. 

37. art gone. Modernize. 

39. shepherd. In what case? thee, the woods, etc. Write the sen¬ 
tence in prose. Give the case of thee. 

40. To what does the participial phrase o’ergrown, etc. relate ? 

41. And all their echoes. Give the case of echoes. 


5 





66 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 

As killing as the canker to the rose, 45 

Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, 

Or frost to flowers that their gay wardrobe wear 
When first the white-thorn blows; 

Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd’s ear. 

Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 50 
Closed o’er the head of your loved Lycidas ? 

For neither were ye playing on the steep 
Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, 

Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high, 

Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. 55 

Ay me! I fondly dream, 

“ Had ye been therefor what could that have done? 

What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, 

The Muse herself for her enchanting son, 

Whom universal Nature did lament, 60 


Notes. — 45. canker, canker- 
worm. 

48. white-thorn blows, haw¬ 
thorn blooms. 

50. Nymphs, Muses. 

52. steep, mountain. 

53. Druids, magicians. 

54. Mona, the Isle of Anglesey. 

55. Deva, the river Dee. 

56. Ay me ! Likely, “ Ah me I” 
fondly, foolishly. 

57. “ Had ye been there ” — that 

is, I fondly dream when I 
think, “ Had ye been there.” 


58. Muse, Calliope, the mother 
of Orpheus. 

Orpheus, “the unparalleled 
singer and musician, the 
power of whose harp or 
lyre drew wild beasts, and 
even rocks and trees, to fol¬ 
low him.” 

60-63. Orpheus, having failed to 
recover his wife Eurydice 
from the lower world, con¬ 
tinued to grieve for her. 
This, the legend says, of¬ 
fended the Thracian wo- 


Analysis. —44. Fanning , etc. What does this phrase modify ? 
47. What figure in the line ? 

45-49. Eewrite in prose. 

50. remorseless deep. What figure? 

56. Ay me l Dispose of me. 

59. for her enchanting son. What does the phrase modify ? 





JOHN MILTON. 


67 


When, by rout that made the hideous roar, 

His gory visage down the stream was sent, 

Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore! 

Alas! what boots it with uncessant care 
To tend the homely, slighted shepherd’s trade, 65 

And strictly meditate the thankless Muse? 

Were it not better done as others use, 

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, 

Or with the tangles of Neaerea’s hair? 

Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise 70 

(That last infirmity of noble mind) 

To scorn delights, and live, laborious days; 

But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, 

And think to burst out into sudden blaze, 

Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, 75 

And slits the thin-spun life. “ But not the praise,” 

Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears; 


men, and in one of their 
drunken orgies they seized 
him and tore him to pieces. 
The fragments of his body 
were gathered and buried 
at the foot of Mount Olym¬ 
pus, but his head was cast 
into the river Hebrus, and 
it floated out to the island 
of Lesbos, now Mitylene/ in 
the Aegean Sea. 

64. what boots it, what profits it. 
uncessant, incessant. 


65, 66. To tend .... thankless 
Muse ? to practise poetry, 
that brings no return or 
recompense. 

67. use, are accustomed or are 

wont to do. 

68, 69. Amaryllis and Neaerea 

are girls named in Virgil 
as beloved by shepherds. 

70. clear, noble. 

73. guerdon, reward. 

77. Phoebus, Apollo, the god of 
prophecy and song. 


Analysis.—67. Were it, etc. What is the grammatical construc¬ 
tion? 

71. That last infirmity. What is the antecedent ? 

72. To scorn, etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

73. Transpose the line. 

75, 76. Comes the blind, etc. Transpose this sentence. .Name the 
subject. 





68 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


“ Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, 

Nor in the glistering foil 

Set olf to the world, nor in broad rumor lies; 80 

But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, 

And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; 

As he pronounces lastly on each deed, 

Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed.” 

O fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood, 85 

Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds, 

That strain I heard was of a higher mood; 

But now my oat proceeds, 

And listens to the herald of the sea, 

Then came in Neptune’s plea; 90 

He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, 

“ What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain ?” 

And questioned every gust of rugged wings 

That blows from off each beaked promontory 

They knew not of his story; 95 

And sage Hippotades their answer brings, 

That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed; 

The air was calm, and on the level brine 
Sleek Panope with all her sisters played. 


Notes. —79. glistering, glitter¬ 
ing. 

83. lastly, finally. 

85. Arethuse, a fountain of Or- 
„ tygia, at the mouth of the 
harbor of Syracuse, Sicily. 


90. Neptune’s plea, the plea in 
Neptune’s behalf. 

96. HippoPades, JEolus, the god 
of. the winds. 

99. Panope, a sea-nymph, one of 
fifty sisters. 


80. Parse set off. Give the modifier of lies. 

82. Who was Jove? 

84. Give the construction of expect. 

91, 92. What is the object of asked ? Parse waves and winds. 

93. Name the complete object of questioned. 

93, 94. What figure ? 

97. That not a blast, etc. What does the clause modify? was 
strayed. Give the modern form, his dungeon. To what does this 
refer ? 

99. Name the modifiers of played. 





JOHN MILTON. 


69 


It was that fatal and perfidious bark, 100 

Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark, 

That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. 

Next Camus, reverend sire, w'ent footing slow, 

His mantle hairy and his bonnet sedge 

Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 105 

Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. 

“ Ah! who hath reft,” quoth he, “ my dearest pledge ?” 

Last came, and last did go, 

The pilot of the Galilean lake; 

Two massy keys he bore of metals twain— 110 

The golden opes, the iron shuts amain— 

He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake: 

“ How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, 

Enow of such as, for their bellies’ sake, 

Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold, 115 


Notes.— 101.Built in the eclipse, 
referring to the supersti¬ 
tion that an eclipse is an 
evil omen. 

rigged, etc.; that is, with 
curses clinging to the rig¬ 
ging. 

103. Camus, god of the river 
Cam, on which Cambridge 
is located, 
slow, slowly. 

104-107. These lines refer to the 
peculiarities of the river- 
sponge found floating on 
the Cam, and the mark¬ 


ings of the river-sedge 
growing along this stream. 

106. sanguine flower, the hya¬ 

cinth. Look for the his¬ 
tory of this word. 

107. who hath reft, who hath 

snatched away. 

109. The pilot, St. Peter. 

110. metals twain, two kinds of 

metal. 

112. mitred, covered with a mitre 
or hood. 

bespake, spake. Used tran¬ 
sitively. 

114. enow, enough. 


Analysis. —100,102. What clause is in apposition with bark f 
103. What figure ? 

107. Name the complete object of quoth. 

108. last ... . last. What parts of speech ? 

111. amain, forcibly. What part of speech? 





70 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Of other care they little reckoning make 
Than how to scramble at the shearer’s feast, 

And shove away the worthy bidden guest. 

Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold 
A sheep-hook, or have learned aught else the least 120 

That to the faithful herdsman’s art belongs! 

What recks it them ? What need they ? They are sped; 

And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs 
Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw: 

The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 125 

But, swollen with wind and the rank mist they draw/ 

Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread; 

Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw 
Daily devours apace, and nothing said. 

But that two-handed engine at the door 130 

Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more. 

Return, Alpheus; the.dread voice is past 
That shrunk thy streams: return, Sicilian Muse, 

And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 

Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. 135 

Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use 

Of shades and wanton winds, and gushing brooks; 


Notes. —122. What recks it 
them ? What does it con¬ 
cern them? 

122. They are sped, they are 
despatched. 


123. flashy, showy. 

124. scrannel, likely scrawny. 
128. privy paw, private paw. 

135. bells, corollas. 

136. use, dwell. 


Analysis. —116-118. Transpose these three lines. 
119. mouths. What ease? 

125. look up. Give grammatical construction. 

126. swollen with wind. Wliat does the phrase modify? 

128. Dispose of Besides what. 

129. apace, speedily. What part of speech? 

132 .Alpheus. What case? Who was Alpheus? 

136. mild whispers. How modified ? 

What subjects has use? 





JOHN MILTON 


71 


On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks; 

Throw thither all your quaint enamelled eyes, 

That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, 140 

And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. 

Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, 

The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, 

The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, 

The glowing violet, 145 

The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, 

With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, 

And every flower that sad embroidery wears: 

Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, 

And dafladillies fill their cup with tears, 150 

To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. 

For so, to interpose a little ease, 

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. 

Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 
Wash far away, where’er thy bones are hurled; 155 

Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, 

Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide 
Yisit’st the bottom of the monstrous world; 

Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied, 

Sleep’st by the fable of Bellerus old, 160 


Notes. —138. swart star, Sirius, 
the dog-star, 
sparely, seldom. 

142. rathe, early; the compar¬ 
ative of this old form is 
rather , meaning, formerly, 
sooner or earlier. 


150. dafladillies, the narcissus. 

151. laureate, having the poet’s 

laurel on it. 

153. dally with false surmise, 
trifle with the false sup¬ 
position. 

159. moist vows, tearful prayers. 


Analysis. —138. What is the antecedent of whose ? 

139. The meaning of quaint and enamelled, in this line? 

140. Name the figure in this line. 

142. Bring . Name all the objective modifiers. 

147. With cowslips. Grammatical construction ? 

149. Grammatical construction of shed ? 

151. To strew, etc.. What does the phrase modify? 





72 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Where the great vision of the guarded mount 
Looks toward Namancos, and Bayona’s hold: 

Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth; 

And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. 

Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more; 165 

For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead, 

Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. 

So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed; 

And yet anon repairs his drooping head, 

And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 170 

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky; 

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 

Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves; 
Where, other groves and other streams along, 

With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 175 

And hears the unexpressive nuptial song, 

In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 

There entertain him all the saints above, 

In solemn troops and sweet societies, 

That sing, and singing in their glory move, 180 


Notes. —162. Namancos and 
Bayona, towns in Galicia, 
hold, stronghold. 

163. ruth, pity. 

168. the day-star, the sun. 

169. repairs, refreshes. 


170. tricks, dresses. 

175. laves, bathes, 
oozy, miry. 

176. unexpressive, inexpressi¬ 

ble. 

177. meek, peaceful. 


Analysis. —163. This line is usually considered an apostrophe to 
Michael the archangel. 

166. your sorrow. Grammatical construction ? 

167. Give the modifiers of the verb in this line. 

169. Parse anon. 

171. Figures in this line? 

173. Who is referred to in this line? 

174-177. Name the subject of the sentence. Rewrite the sentence 
in prose. 

177. blest kingdoms meek. Notice the arrangement. 

178. Grammatical construction of above f 





JOHN MILTON. 


73 


And wipe the tears for ever from their eyes. 

Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more; 

Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore, 

In thy large recompense, and shalt be good 
To all that wander in that perilous flood. 185 

Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills, 

While the still morn went out with sandals gray; 

He touched the tender stops of various quills, 

With eager thought warbling his Doric lay: 

And now the sun had stretched out all the hills, 190 

And now was dropped into the western bay. 

At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue; 

To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new. 


Notes. —184. In thy large re¬ 
compense, in the recom¬ 
pense for thy sufferings. 
186. uncouth, unknown. 


188. stops, the small holes in the 

flute. 

189. Doric lay, his shepherd’s 

song. 


Analysis. —182. What figure in the line? 

187. Point out the figure in this line? 

190. Notice the beautiful thought here. What is the figure? 
192. he rose. Antecedent of he ? 


MAY MORNING. 

Now the bright morning star, day’s harbinger, 
Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her 
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws 
The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose. 

Hail bounteous May I that doth inspire 
Mirth and youth and warm desire; 

Woods and groves are of thy dressing, 

Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing. 

Thus we salute thee with our early song, 

And welcome thee, and wish thee long. 






74 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 

POETS. 

Edmund Waller (1605-1687).—Poet and politician. First a 
Republican, then a Royalist. Author of many short poems, 
most of which consist of elegant and polished verses, and but 
little else. 

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667).—One of the most popular 
poets of his day. Began writing poetry when a boy; publish¬ 
ed a .volume when only thirteen years of age. Author of Pin¬ 
daric Odes , Davideis, and Love Verses. His Ode to Anacreon is 
one of his best. 

Robert Herrick (1591-1674).—One of the sweetest lyric 
writers of his time.' Educated at Cambridge. Author of 
Cherry Ripe, To Daffodils, Gather ye Rosebuds while ye May , and 
many other beautiful songs. 

Sir John Suckling (1609-1642?).—A Cavalier poet. A writer 
of some beautiful lyric poems, his Ballad of a Wedding being 
one of his best. 


PROSE-WRITERS. 

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679).—An eminent writer on politics 
and moral philosophy. Author of Leviathan and Translations 
of Homer in Verse. 

Izaak Walton (1593-1683). —A delightful writer, who kept a 
linen-draper’s store to the age of fifty. His best work is The 
Compleat Angler, a classic still much admired. Author also of 
the Lives of Walton, Hooker, Herbert, and others, all written in 
a beautiful and simple style. 

Thomas Fuller (1608-1661).—Known as “ quaint old Thomas 
Fuller.” A witty English .divine. Educated at Queen’s Col¬ 
lege, Cambridge. Author of The Worthies of England, Church 
History of Britain, and other works. 

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667).—The greatest theological writer 
of the English Church in his day. Educated at Cambridge. A 
brilliant writer of essays. His most popular work is Holy Liv¬ 
ing and Holy Dying. He was author also of a treatise On the 
Liberty of Prophesying. 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


75 


Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (1608-1674).—An emi¬ 
nent Loyalist and author. His greatest work is his History 
of the Rebellion. 

Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682).—An eccentric but power¬ 
ful writer. Was a practicing physician. His greatest works 
are Religion of a Physician, Vulgar Errors, and Hydriotaphia, 
a treatise on urn-burial. 

Algernon Sidney (1621-1683). — A celebrated Kepublican 
writer. Son of the Earl of Leicester. Was beheaded in 1683. 
His chief work is Discourses on Government. 

Dr. Isaac Barrow (1630-1677).—A noted mathematician and 
writer. A professor at Cambridge. Author of a number of 
mathematical works in Latin. Author also of a number of 
theological treatises. 

Samuel Pepys (1632-1703).—Son of a London tailor. Became 
secretary to the Admiralty. Author of an amusing Diary, in 
which the life of the times is depicted in the minutest details. 

Dr. Richard Baxter (1615-1691).—A great Puritan divine. 
Author of The Samis’ Everlasting Rest, A Narrative of My Own 
Life and Times, and other works, numbering altogether one hun¬ 
dred and sixty-eight. 


IV. 

AGE OF THE RESTORATION. 

1660 - 1700 . 

Reigns of Charles II., James II., William and Mary. 

Not only the social life of the nation, but also the 
literature of this age, was in marked contrast to that of 
the age of Milton. The Protectorate of Cromwell having 
been overthrown, and Charles II. having been restored 
to the throne, all the vices and fashions of the gay Cav¬ 
aliers were made to take the place of the austerity of 
their Puritan predecessors. English morals and English 
literature both were debauched. Much of the literature 
of this age, particularly that of a dramatic character, was 
debased, and made to pander to the licentious taste of 
the age. An utter absence of modesty and shame cha¬ 
racterized the mode of life of the ruling class, and many 
of the writings of the period were accordingly tainted 
with this moral poison. 


6. JOHN DRYDEN, 

1631 - 1700 . 

John Dryden, the most eminent poet of the Restora¬ 
tion, was born of Puritan parents on the 9th of August, 
1631. He received his preliminary education at the 
famous school of Dr. Busby at Westminster, and then 
became a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, where 
he graduated without special distinction four years 
76 



JOHN DRYDEN. 


77 


later. On the death of Oliver Cromwell, Dr} r den wrote 
a glowing eulogium on that hero, but two years later 
he changed his politics, became a Royalist, and wrote a 
poem celebrating the restoration of Charles II. to the 
throne. 

His income from his father’s estate being but sixty 
pounds a year, Dryden was compelled to resort to lit¬ 
erature as a profession. Books then had but a limited 
sale, and much the most profitable writing was that of 
a dramatic or theatrical character. He therefore de¬ 
voted himself to the writing of plays, entering into a 
contract to supply three dramas each year. He thus 
produced play after play in rapid succession, but all, 
it is saidj were tainted with the licentiousness of that 
shameless age. 

Dryden’s dramatic career began about the year 1662, 
and a year later he married Lady Elizabeth Howard, 
daughter of the earl of Berkshire; but the union did 
not prove a happy one, his wife having been of a quer¬ 
ulous disposition. 

His first great poem, the Annus Mirabilis , appeared in 
1667. It was designed to commemorate the terrible 
calamities of the preceding year—the Fire of London, 
the Plague, and the war with the Dutch. The poem 
was made the vehicle for eulogizing the King, and Dry¬ 
den was made poet-laureate and historiographer to the 
King, with a salary of one hundred pounds a year and 
a tierce of wine worth an additional hundred pounds. 

In 1681 the first part of his great work, Absalom and 
Achitophel, appeared, in which he attacks the most noted 
men of the corrupt English court, assigning to them 
names borrowed from the Old Testament. 

In 1684 he produced Religio Laid , a vigorous defense 
of the English Church against the Dissenters, and in 
1687 he changed his religion again, becoming a Roman 


78 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Catholic. In defense of his course he produced another 
poem, The Hind and the Panther , in which he represents 
the Roman Catholic Church as a “ milk-white hind,” 
and the Church of England as a “ panther, the fairest 
of the spotted kind.” 

When William and Mary came to the throne Dry den 
lost his laureateship, and he again resorted to his pen 
for a living. His translation of Virgil is said to have 
brought him twelve hundred pounds. 

Dryden’s finest lyric is his Ode for St. Cecilia's Day , 
generally known as Alexander's Feast. Though much 
criticised, it still remains a favorite; and deservedly 
so, as no poem better illustrates the flexibility of the 
language we speak. 

Dryden’s old age was not happy. He was poor, and 
his work was by no means to his taste, for he was com¬ 
pelled to write as a task to earn his daily bread. He 
was a rapid composer, and seldom pruned or rewrote, 
and few writers have approached him in the amount 
of work prepared. 

CRITICISM BY SIR WALTER SCOTT. 

The distinguishing characteristic of Dryden’s genius 
seems to have been the power of reasoning, and of ex¬ 
pressing the result in appropriate language. This may 
seem slender praise, yet these were the talents which led 
Bacon into the recesses of Philosophy and conducted 
Newton to the cabinet of Nature. The prose works 
of Dryden bear repeated evidence to his philosophical 
powers. Indeed, his early and poetical studies gave 
his researches somewhat too much of a metaphysical 
character; and it was a consequence of his mental acute¬ 
ness that his dramatic personages often philosophized or 
reasoned when they ought only to have felt. The more 


JOHN DRY DEN. 


79 


lofty, the fiercer, the more ambitious, feelings seem also 
to have been his favorite studies. With this power Dry- 
den’s poetry was gifted in a degree surpassing in mod¬ 
ulated harmony that of all who had preceded him, and 
inferior to none that has since written English verse. 
He first showed that the English language was capa¬ 
ble of uniting smoothness and strength. The hob¬ 
bling verses of his predecessors were abandoned even 
by the lowest versifiers; and by the force of his pre¬ 
cept and example the meanest lampooners of the year 
seventeen hundred wrote smoother lines than Donne 
and Cowley, the chief poets of the earlier half of the 
seventeenth century. What was said of Rome adorned 
by Augustus has been, by Johnson, applied to English 
poetry improved by Dryden—that he found it of brick, 
and left it of marble. 

ALEXANDER’S FEAST. 

Note. —This ode is pronounced by Macaulay to be Dryden’s 
greatest work. He calls it “ the masterpiece of the second class of 
poetry,” and says it “ ranks just below the great models of the first.” 
Dryden himself was very proud of it, and is said to have claimed 
that “ a nobler ode never was produced, nor ever will be.” The poem 
was written for an English musical society which annually cele¬ 
brated the festival of St. Cecilia, the patron of music, and was com¬ 
posed in a single night, the author claiming that he was so struck 
with the subject that he could not leave it until he had completed 
the poem. 

I. 

'Twas at the royal feast, for Persia won 
By Philip’s warlike son: 

Notes.—2. Philip’s warlike son, I Philip, king of Macedon 

Alexander the Great, son of I (b. c. 356-323). 


Analysis.—1, 2. ’Twas at, etc. Parse ’Twas. Transpose to the 
natural order. 




80 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Aloft in awful state 
Tlie godlike hero sate 

On his imperial throne; 5 

His valiant peers were placed around, 

Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound 
(So should desert in arms be crowned): 

The lovely Thais by his side, 

Sate like a blooming Eastern bride, 10 

In flower of youth and beauty’s pride. 

Happy, happy, happy pair! 

None but the brave, 

Nohe but the brave, 

None but the brave deserves the fair. 15 


ii. 

Timotheus, placed on high 
Amid the tuneful choir, 

With flying fingers touched the lyre: 

The trembling notes ascend the sky, 

And heavenly joys inspire. 20 

The song began from Jove, 

Who left his blissful seats, above, 


Notes. —9. Thais, an Athenian 
beauty and wit who accom¬ 
panied Alexander in his in¬ 
vasion of Persia. 


16. Timo'theus, a celebrated 
Greek musician. 

21. Jove, Jupiter, the son of 
Saturn. 


Analysis. —3, 4. Write in natural order. 

4. sate. Give the meaning. Name the modifiers of sate. 

7. Their brows .... bound. What kind of phrase ? Parse brows. 

8. Give the construction of the parenthetical words. 

10. like and bride. Give construction. What figure ? 

15. none. Singular or plural ? 

13-15, What figure ? 

16. Timotheus , placed, etc. In what case is Timotheus ? What does 
the participial phrase modify ? 

on high. Give grammatical construction. 

20. joys inspire. Give grammatical construction. 

22. blissful seats. What is the present form ? 





JOHN JDRYHEN. 


81 


(Such is the power of mighty love!) 

A dragon’s fiery form belied the god : 

Sublime on radiant spheres he rode. 25 

***** 

The listening crowd admire the lofty sound, 

A present deity! they shout around; 

A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound. 

With ravished ears 

The monarch hears, 30 

Assumes the god, 

Affects to nod, 

And seems to shake the spheres. 

hi. 

The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician sung,— 

Of Bacchus ever fair and ever young: 35 

The jolly god in triumph comes ; 

Sound the trumpets, beat the drums ; 

Flushed with a purple grace, 

He shows his honest face: 

Now give the hautboys breath. He comes ! he comes! 40 


Notes. —24. A dragon’s fiery 
form, etc.—that is, Jupiter 
appeared in the form of a 
dragon. 

27. -deity, a god. 


32. Affects to nod, signifies his 
will by nodding. 

34. Bacchus, the god of wine; 

son of Jupiter. 

39. honest, handsome. 


Analysis.—23. such. What part of speech? Dispose of the 
parenthetical sentence. 

24. Dispose of belied. 

27. around. What part of speech ? 

28. Is the verb in the line transitive or intransitive ? 

29. With ravished ears. An adjunct of what? 

34. sung. Modernize. 

35. ever fair, etc. Why is ever repeated? 

38. flushed with a purple grace. What kind of phrase, and what 
does it modify? 

40. hautboys. Give meaning. 

6 





82 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Bacchus, ever fair and young, 

Drinking joys did first ordain; 

Bacchus’ blessings are a treasure, 

Drinking is the soldier’s pleasure: 

Bich the treasure, 45 

Sweet the pleasure, 

Sweet is pleasure after pain. 


IV. 

Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain; 

Fought all his battles o’er again; 

And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain. 50 
The master saw the madness rise, 

His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes; 

And, while he Heaven and Earth defied, 

Changed his hand, and checked his pride. 

He chose a mournful Muse, 55 

Soft pity to infuse: 

He sung Darius, great and good, 

By too severe a fate, 


Note. —57. Darius ; that is, Da- the time of Alexander’s in- 

rius III., king of Persia at vasion. 


Analysis. —41. ever fair, etc. Why is ever not repeated? 

41, 42. Name the subject, the predicate, and the object in this sen¬ 
tence. Bewrite the sentence in prose. 

45, 46. Supply the ellipsis. What is the order of these two lines ? 

48. Soothed, etc. What kind of phrase ? What does it modify ? 

49. Explain the contraction o’er. Dispose of o’er and again. 

50. thrice he slew the slain. What figure ? Dispose of thrice and 
thrice. 

51. saw the madness rise. Parse rise. 

What is the object of sawf 

53, 54. To what does he refer ? To what the first his t To what 
the second his ? What fault in the lines ? 

55. Explain the figure in the line. 

58. By too severe, etc. This is an adjunct of what ? 





JOHN DRYDEN. 


83 


Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, 

Fallen from his high estate, 60 

And weltering in his blood ; 

Deserted, at his utmost need, 

By those his former bounty fed; 

On the bare earth exposed he lies, 

With not a friend to close his eyes. 65 

With downcast looks the joyless victor sate, 

Revolving in his altered soul 

The various turns of chance below; 

And, now and then, a sigh he stole, 

And tears began to flow. 70 


Y. 

The mighty master smiled to see 
That love was in the next degree; 

J Twas but a kindred sound to move, 

For pity melts the mind to love. 

Softly sweet, in Lydian measures, 75 

Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures. 


Notes. —61. weltering in his 
blood. This refers to the 
murder of Darius by one 
of his satraps. 

67. Revolving, reflecting on. 

72. in the next degree; that is, 
came next to pity. 


75. Lydian measures. Of the 
five styles of Grecian music, 
the Lydian was soft and 
voluptuous; the Phrygian, 
religious; the Doric, mar¬ 
tial ; the Ionic, gay; and 
the jEolic, simple. 


Analysis. —59, 60. Fallen , fallen, etc. What figure ? 

64, 65. Name the modifier of he. 

62-65. Analyze the sentence. 

66. joyless victor. Who is meant ? 

68. Dispose of below. 

69. Dispose of now and then. Give the meaning of a sigh he stole. 
71. mighty master. To whom does this refer ? 

73. ’ Twas. Write in full. Explain the use of the apostrophe here. 
Parse but. 

74. What figure in the line ? 

76. he ... . his. To what does each refer? 





84 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


War, he sung, is toil and trouble; 

Honor but an empty bubble; 

Never ending, still beginning, 

Fighting still, and still destroying: 80 

If the world be worth thy winning, 

Think, oh, think it worth enjoying! 

Lovely Thais sits beside thee, 

Take the good the gods provide thee. 

The many rend the skies with loud applause; 85 

So Love was crowned, but Music won the cause. 

The prince, unable to conceal his pain, 

Gazed on the fair 
Who caused his care, 

And sighed and looked, sighed and looked, 90 
Sighed and looked, and sighed again. 

At length, with love and wine at once oppressed, 

The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast. 


VI. 

Now strike the golden lyre again; 

A louder yet, and yet a louder strain. 95 

Break his bands of sleep asunder, 

And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder. 

Hark ! hark ! the horrid sound 
Has raised up his head, 


Analysis. —77. What is the object of sung? 

78. What figure in the line ? Parse but and bubble. 

79, 80. Dispose of the participles in the line. 

81. worth is here used as an adjective. Winning is in the objective 
case after a preposition understood. 

82. worth enjoying. Dispose of both words. 

85. Explain the figure in the line. 

86. Point out and name the figure in this line. 

92, 93. Name the modifiers of victor. 

95. Dispose of the words yet and yet. 

96. bands of sleep. What figure ? 

97. Dispose of like and peal. 

99. raised up. Would this be correct in prose? 



JOHN DRYDEN. 


85 


As awaked from the dead, 100 

And, amazed, he stares around. 

Revenge! revenge! Timotheus cries, 

See the Furies arise! 

See the snakes that they rear! 

How they hiss in their hair, 105 

And the sparkles that flash from their eyes! 

Behold a ghastly band, 

Each a torch in his hand! 

These are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain, 

And unburied remain, 110 

Inglorious on the plain : 

Give the vengeance due 
To the valiant crew. 

Behold how they toss their torches on high, 

How they point to the Persian abodes, 115 

And glittering temples of their hostile gods! 

The princes applaud with a furious joy, 

And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy; 

Thais led the way, 

To light him to his prey, 120 

And, like another Helen, fired another Troy! 


Notes.— 116. their hostile gods, 
the gods of their enemies, 
the Persians. 

118. flambeau, a torch. 

121. like another Helen. Ac¬ 
cording to mythology, 
Helen, wife of Menelaus, 
king of Sparta, was the 
most beautiful woman in 
the world. She was said 


to be of divine origin, and 
was stolen by Paris, prince 
of Troy, which led to the 
Trojan war and the con¬ 
sequent burning of Troy. 
Helen being the occasion 
of the Trojan war, she is 
represented as the cause 
of the burning of Troy by 
the Greeks. 


Analysts. —100, 101. Write in prose form, and supply the ellipsis. 
Dispose of the word around. 

105. they and their. To what does each word refer? 

108. Give construction of torch. 

112, 113. Explain what is meant. 

118. to destroy. What does it modify? 

120. To light , etc. What kind of phrase, and what does it modify ? 





86 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


VII. 

Thus, long ago, 

Ere heaving bellows learned to blow, 

While organs yet were mute; 

Timotheus, to his breathing flute 125 

And sounding lyre, 

Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire. 

At last divine Cecilia came, 

Inventress of the vocal frame; 

The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store, 130 

Enlarged the former narrow bounds, 

And added length to solemn sounds, 

With Nature’s mother-wit, and arts unknown before. 

Let old Timotheus yield the prize, 

Or both divide the crown; 135 

He raised a mortal to the skies; 

She drew an angel down. 


Notes— 122-124. Thus . . . . 
were mute ; that is, before 
the invention of organs. 

125. to, with. 

129. Inventress, etc. Cecilia is 
said to have lived in the 
third century, and to her 
is ascribed the invention 
of the vocal frame , or or¬ 
gan. 


136. He raised a mortal, etc. 

He immortalized Alex¬ 
ander. 

137. She drew an angel down. 

This probably refers to the 
legend in the story of St. 
Cecilia, that she was under 
• the immediate protection 
of an angel, as related in 
the Legenda Aura. 


Analysis. —123. Meaning of heaving bellows ? 

127. Explain the figures in the line. 

131, 132. What is the meaning of these lines? 

133. Nature’s. Why written with a capital letter? What figure 
in the line ? 

mother-wit. Give the meaning. 

137. Dispose of down. 





CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


87 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 

POET. 

Samuel Butler (1612-1680).—The greatest burlesque-writer of 
the age in which he lived. Famous as the author of Hudibras, 
one of the keenest satires in English, ridiculing the manners 
of the Puritans. 


PROSE-WRITERS. 

John Bunyan (1628-1688).—The greatest master of Allegory 
in the language. At first a poor tinker, then a preacher. Wrote 
his famous Pilgrim’s Progress while in jail for insisting on preach¬ 
ing his doctrines to the people. Author also of Holy War and 
Grace abounding in the Chief of Sinners , all written in excellent 
English. 

John Locke (1632-1704).—A metaphysical writer. Educated 
at Oxford. His greatest work is An Essay concerning the 
Human Understanding. Author also of Thoughts concerning 
Education and other essays. 

Sir William Temple (1628-1699).—A well-known statesman 
and a writer of high character. Author of a number of grace¬ 
fully-written essays. 

John Evelyn (1620-1706).—Distinguished as the author of 
several scientific works written in a popular style. His most 
prominent works are Sylva, a treatise on forest trees, and 
Terra , a work or agriculture and gardening. 




V. 


AGE OF QUEEN ANNE. 

1700 - 1750 . 

Reigns of Qtjeen Anne, George I., George II. 

The age of Queen Anne is remarkable chiefly for the 
introduction of periodical literature. This is the era in 
which flourished The Tatler and The Spectator, the earliest 
of literary journals. 

The moral tone of this era was but little more elevated 
than that of the preceding, but there was more refine¬ 
ment of both manners and language. Among the most 
noted literary representatives of the era were Addison, 
Pope, Steele, Swift, and Defoe. 


7. JOSEPH ADDISON, 

1672-1719. 

Joseph Addison, the son of a Wiltshire rector, was 
born May 1, 1672. His early life was passed in his 
father’s family at the rectory, but in his boyhood he 
was sent to Charter-House School in London, where 
he met a young Irish lad, Richard Steele, with whom 
he formed an intimate friendship which continued 
through life. At the age of fifteen he left the Charter- 
House School and entered Queen’s College, Oxford. 
Two years later he secured a scholarship in Magdalen 
College, granted for the excellence of his Latin verses. 

88 



JOSEPH ADDISON. 


89 


He published his first poem, some verses addressed 
to Dryden, in 1694, which won for him the friendship 
of that poet. This was a matter of considerable im¬ 
portance to young Addison, who was without fame 
and as yet unknown to the literary men of England. 

Addison’s father was desirous that his son should 
become a clergyman, but Lords Somers and Montagu 
decided that such talent as he displayed was needed 
in the service of his country. He wrote a poem on the 
King, which pleased the monarch so highly that Ad¬ 
dison was put on a pension of three hundred pounds 
a year, that he might cultivate his literary taste by 
travel on the Continent. Addison accordingly began 
at once to travel in France and Italy, studying closely 
the society, manners, and scenery of the countries 
through which he passed, and at the same time at¬ 
tempting to acquire a knowledge of the French lan¬ 
guage. King William’s death, however, cut off his 
pension, and he was finally compelled to return to 
England. 

When the battle of Blenheim was fought Addison 
was employed to write a poem in praise of the vic¬ 
tory. This brought him again to the notice'of the 
Crown, and he was made commissioner of appeals. 
From this post he rose rapidly until he became sec¬ 
retary of Ireland, and, finally, in 1717, one of the 
King’s chief secretaries of State, the highest position 
he attained. 

In the spring of 1709, Addison’s old school-fellow, 
Richard Steele, started a tri-weekly paper called The 
Taller, to which Addison became a contributor. This 
paper gave in each issue a short article or essay and 
items of news. It became popular at once. In 1711, 
Addison and Steele issued, instead of The Tatler, their 
famous daily, The Spectator. Both contributors wrote 


90 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


anonymously, though Addison’s articles were usually 
signed by one of the letters C, L, I, O—supposed to 
represent Chelsea, London, Islington, and the Office. 

Addison married the countess of Warwick when he 
was forty-four, but the marriage was not a happy one. 
His wife was high-spirited and dashing, while he was 
cold and polished. 

Addison won fame as a poet, but his greatest reputa¬ 
tion is due to the elegant, graceful, and polished style 
of his essays, which made The Spectator , in which they 
mostly were printed, a classic. Among his earlier writ¬ 
ings were an opera entitled Rosamond and a comedy 
called The Drummer. Six years before his death he 
wrote a tragedy entitled Cato, which was received with 
great favor and applause. It was translated into French, 
Italian, and German. 

In his later years he was addicted to drink, and it is 
said that he thawed out and became voluble only when 
to some extent under the influence of wine. He died 
at his home on the 15th of June, 1719, and his body 
was borne at dead of night to Westminster Abbey, 
where it was buried. 

CRITICISM BY MACAULAY. 

The mere choice and arrangement of Addison’s words 
would have sufficed to make his essays classical. For 
never, not even by Dryden, not even by Temple, had 
the English language been written with such sweetness, 
grace, and facility. 

As a moral satirist, Addison stands unrivaled. In 
wit, properly so called, he was not inferior to Cowley 
or Butler. The still higher faculty of invention he pos¬ 
sessed in a still larger measure. The numerous fictions, 
generally original, often wild and grotesque, hut always 
singularly graceful and happy, which are found in his 


JOSEPH ADDISON. 


91 


essays, fully entitle him to the rank of a great poet—a 
rank to which his metrical compositions give him no 
claim. As an observer of life, of manners, of all shades 
of human character, he stands in the first class. And 
what he observed he had the art of communicating in 
two widely-different ways. He could describe virtues, 
vices, habits, whims, as well as Clarendon. But he 
could do something better. He could call human 
beings into existence, and make them exhibit them¬ 
selves. If we wish to find anything more vivid than 
Addison’s best portraits, we must go either to Shake¬ 
speare or to Cervantes. 

ESSAY ON CHEERFULNESS. 

I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The 
latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of the 
mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed 
and permanent. Those are often raised into the great¬ 
est transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest 5 
depressions of melancholy: on the contrary, cheerful¬ 
ness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite 
gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of 
sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks 
through a gloom of clouds and glitters for a moment; 10 
cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, 
and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity. 

Men of austere principles look upon mirth as too 
wanton and dissolute for a state of probation, and as 


Analysis.—2. as an act. Dispose of as. 
the former as a habit. Supply the ellipsis. 

3. cheerf ulness fixed. Supply ellipsis. Dispose of fixed. 

4. Those, etc. Give modifiers of those. 

6. depressions of melancholy. What figure ? 

9. Mirth is like a flash, etc. Explain the figure. Give- the case of 
lightning. 



92 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

filled with a certain triumph and insolence of heart 
that is inconsistent with a life which is every moment 
obnoxious to the greatest dangers. Writers of this 
complexion have observed that the sacred Person who 
was the great pattern of perfection was never seen to 
laugh. 

Cheerfulness of mind is not liable to any of these ex¬ 
ceptions : it is of a serious and composed nature; it does 
not throw the mind into a condition improper for the 
present state of humanity, and is very conspicuous in 
the characters of those who are looked upon as the 
greatest philosophers among the heathen, as well as 
among those who have been deservedly esteemed as 
saints and holy men among Christians.* 

If we consider cheerfulness in three lights, with re¬ 
gard to ourselves, to those we converse with, and to the 
great Author of our being, it will not a little recom¬ 
mend itself on each of these accounts. The man who 
is possessed of this excellent frame of mind is not only 
easy in his thoughts, but a perfect master of all the 
powers and faculties of his soul: his imagination is 
always clear, and his judgment undisturbed; his tem¬ 
per is even and unruffled, whether in action or in soli¬ 
tude. He comes with a relish to all those goods which 
Nature- has provided for him, tastes all the pleasures of 
the creation which are poured about him, and does not 
feel the full weight of those accidental evils which may 
befall him. - 

Analysis. —16. To what does that relate? 

18. Who is meant by sacred Person? 

25. Dispose of are looked upon. 

25, 26. Give the construction of as and philosophers. 

26. Dispose of as well as. 

28. among Christians. W T hat does the phrase modify ? 

30. to those, etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

38-42. He conies, etc. Name all the predicates. 


15 

20 

25 

30 

35 

40 



JOSEPH ADDISON. 


93 


If we consider him in relation to the persons whom 
he converses with, it naturally produces love and good¬ 
will toward him. A cheerful mind is not only dis¬ 
posed to be affable and obliging, but raises the same 
good-humor in those who come within its influence. 
A man finds himself pleased, he does not know whj', 
with the cheerfulness of his companion: it is like a 
sudden sunshine that awakens a secret delight in the 
mind, without her attending to it: the heart rejoices of 
its own accord, and naturally flows out into friendship 
and benevolence toward the person who has so kindly 
an effect upon it. 

When I consider this cheerful state of mind in its 
third relation, I cannot but look upon it as a constant 
habitual gratitude to‘the great Author of Nature. An 
inward cheerfulness is an implicit praise and thanks¬ 
giving to Providence under all its dispensations : it is a 
kind of acquiescence in the state wherein we are placed, 
and a secret approbation of the Divine will in his con¬ 
duct toward men. 

There are but two things which, in my opinion, can 
reasonably deprive us of this cheerfulness of heart. The 
first of these is the sense of guilt. A man who lives in 
a state of vice and impenitence can have no title to that 
evenness and tranquillity of mind which is the health 
of the soul and the natural effect of virtue and inno¬ 
cence. Cheerfulness in an ill man deserves a harder 
name than language can furnish us with, and is many 


Analysis. —43, 44. whom he converses with. Dispose of whom. 
49, 50. What figure in these lines ? 

51. the heart .... flows out. What figure ? 

53. kindly. What part of speech ? 

59. Point out and name the figure in this line. 

67. which is the health, etc. What figure ? 

70. furnish us with. Dispose of the verb. 


■45 

i 50 

55 

60 

65 

70 



94 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

degrees beyond what we commonly call folly or mad¬ 
ness. 

Atheism, by which I mean a disbelief of a Supreme 
Being, and consequently of a future state, under what¬ 
soever titles it shelters itself, may likewise very reason- 75 
ably deprive a man of this cheerfulness of temper. 
There is something so particularly gloomy and offensive 
to human nature in the prospect of non-existence, that 
I cannot but wonder, with many excellent writers, how 
it is possible for a man to outlive the expectation of it. 80 
For my own part, I think the being of a God is so little 
to be doubted, that it is almost the only truth we are 
sure of, and such a truth as we meet with in every ob¬ 
ject, in every occurrence, and in every thought. If we 
look into the characters of this tribe of infidels, we gen- 85 
erally find they are made up of pride, spleen, and cavil: 
it is indeed no wonder that men who are uneasy to 
themselves should be so to the rest of the world; and 
how is it possible for a man to be otherwise than un¬ 
easy in himself who is in danger every moment of los- 90 
ing his entire existence and dropping into nothing ? 

The vicious man and atheist have therefore no pre¬ 
tence to cheerfulness, and would act very unreasonably 
should they endeavor after it. It is impossible for any 
one to live in good-humor, and enjoy his present ex- 95 
istence, who is apprehensive either of torment or of 
annihilation; of being miserable, or of not being at all. 

After having mentioned these two great principles, 
which are destructive of cheerfulness in their own na- 


Analysis. —71. degrees beyond. Dispose of beyond. 
73, 74. Atheism, etc. Point out the figure. 

82, 83. are sure of. Give grammatical construction. 
89. Dispose of to be otherwise than. 

94. endeavor after it. Explain. 



JOSEPH ADDISON. 


95 


ture, as well as in right reason, I cannot think of any 100 
other that ought to banish this happy temper from a 
virtuous mind. Pain and sickness, shame and reproach, 
poverty and old age, nay, death itself, considering the 
shortness of their duration and the advantage we may 
reap from them, do not deserve the name of evils: a 105 
good mind may bear up under them with fortitude, with 
indolence, and with cheerfulness of heart. The tossing 
of a tempest does not discompose him, which he is sure 
will bring him to a joyful harbor. 

A man who uses his best endeavors to live according 110 
to the dictates of virtue and right reason has two per¬ 
petual sources of cheerfulness, in the consideration of 
his own nature, and of that Being on whom he has a 
dependence. If he looks into himself, he cannot but re¬ 
joice in that existence which is so lately bestowed on 115 
him, and which, after millions of ages, will be still new 
and still in its beginning. How many self-congratula¬ 
tions naturally arise in the mind when it reflects on this 
its entrance into eternity, when it takes a view of those 
improvable faculties which in a few years, and even at 120 
his first setting out, have made so considerable a prog¬ 
ress, and which will be still receiving an increase of 
perfection, and consequently an increase of happiness! 


Analysis. —101. to banish, etc. What figure? 

105, 106. a good mind may bear up, etc. Parse the verb. 

108. which. What is the antecedent ? Bewrite the sentence in a 
different order. 

112. sources of cheerfulness. What figure ? 

What phrases modify consideration ? 

114. If he looks, etc. Subjunctive or indicative? 

114, 115. he cannot but rejoice. Parse. 

117. still in its beginning. What does “still” modify? 

120. What is the force of even in this line ? 

121. Dispose of setting out. 



96 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


The consciousness of such a being spreads a perpetual 
diffusion of joy through the soul of a virtuous man, and 
makes him look upon himself every moment as more 
happy than he knows how to conceive. 

The second source of cheerfulness to a good mind is 
its consideration of that Being on whom we have our 
dependence, and in whom, though we behold Him as 
yet but in the first faint discoveries of His perfections, 
we see everything that w T e can imagine as great, glorious, 
or amiable. We find ourselves everywhere upheld by 
His goodness, 'and surrounded with an immensity of 
love and mercy. In short, we depend upon a Being 
whose power qualifies Him to make us happy by an 
infinity of means, whose goodness and truth engage 
Him to make those happy who desire it of Him, and 
whose unchangeableness will secure us in this happi¬ 
ness to all eternity. 

Such considerations, which every one should perpet¬ 
ually cherish in his thoughts, will banish from us all 
that secret heaviness of heart which unthinking men 
are subject to when they lie under no real affliction, all 
that anguish which we may feel from any evil that ac¬ 
tually oppresses us, to which I may likewise add those 
little cracklings of mirth and folly that are apter to be¬ 
tray virtue than support it; and establish in us such an 
even and cheerful temper as makes us pleasing to our¬ 
selves, to those with whom we converse, and to Him 
whom we were made to please. 


Analysis. —124, 125. spreads a perpetual diffusion of joy, etc. Is 
this a good expression ? 

130, 131. as yet but. Give the grammatical construction. 

132, 133. as great, glorious, etc. Parse the adjectives. 

135. Give the construction of In short. 

141-151. Analyze this sentence. 

147. apter. Give the modern form. 

# 


125 

130 

135 

140 

145 

150 



JOSEPH ADDISON. 


97 


THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD. 

i. 

The spacious firmament on high, 

With all the blue ethereal sky, 

And spangled heavens, a shining frame, 

Their great Original proclaim; 

Th’ unVearied sun, from day to day, 

Does his Creator's power display, 

And publishes to every land, 

The work of an Almighty hand. 

II. 

Soon as the evening shades prevail, 

The moon takes up the wondrous tale, 

And nightly to the listening earth 
Repeats the story of her birth; 

While all the stars that round her burn, 

And all the planets in their turn, 

Confirm the tidings as they roll, 

And spread the truth from pole to pole. 

in. 

What though, in solemn silence, all 
Move round the dark terrestrial ball ? 

What though no real voice or sound 
Amid their radiant orbs be found ? 

In Reason’s ear they all rejoice, 

And utter forth a glorious voice, 

For ever singing as they shine, 

“ The Hand that made us is divine.” 


7 


8. ALEXANDER POPE, 

1688 - 1744 . 

Alexander Pope, the greatest poet of this period, was 
born of Catholic parents in London, May 21,1688. While 
attending school he wrote a lampoon on his teacher, for 
which he was severely punished; in consequence of 
which his parents removed him from school. After 
the age of twelve he devoted himself to self-instruc¬ 
tion, giving himself up almost wholly to the pursuit of 
literature. His powers as a poet were developed, how¬ 
ever, before his school-life closed, his Ode on Solitude 
having been written before he was twelve. His Essay 
on Criticism was published before Pope was twenty-three 
years of age. 

Pope was a man of peculiar appearance. His face was 
pleasant, hut from early infancy his body was sadly de¬ 
formed. It is said that he was so weak that he was not 
able to dress or undress himself, and every morning he 
was sewed up in canvas stays, without which he could 
not stand erect. His deformity led his associates to call 
him the “ Interrogation-Point.” He was extremely fas¬ 
tidious in dress, and on company days “ he always wore 
a black velvet coat, a tie wig, and a little sword.” His 
deformity and ill-health seem to have warped .not only 
his body, but also his mind. 

In his boyhood his grand passion was a great admira¬ 
tion for Dryden, and this it was that led him to imitate 
the style of his renowned predecessor. But while his 
wit was more brilliant than that of Dryden, Pope’s vigor 
of thought never equaled that of his illustrious model. 

98 



ALEXANDER POPE. 


99 


Pope’s Essay on Criticism , the finest piece of argu¬ 
mentative poetry in the English language, appeared 
in 1711, though it had been completed about two years 
before. Following this, in 1713, was The Rape of the 
Lock , which tells the story of a curl cut from the head 
of a maiden by a daring young nobleman. This little 
epic poem is not only a brilliant specimen of the mock- 
heroic style, but it gives also a very vivid and faithful 
picture of fashionable English life during the reign of 
Queen Anne. 

Pope earned some reputation also as a translator. In 
1712 he began the translation of the Iliad and the Odys¬ 
sey , and completed his work in 1725. Much of his man¬ 
uscript while making this translation was presented to 
the printer on scraps of paper and the backs of letters. 
For this translation he received eight thousand pounds, 
with which he bought himself a villa at Twickenham, 
surrounded by five acres of land. 

The Dunciad, a bitter satire which appeared in 1729, 
was written by Pope to lash the enemies and critics 
who constantly annoyed him. They gained the noto¬ 
riety they courted, but not in the way they desired. 

Pope’s most finished versification appears in his Essay 
on Man , a poem which is nearly perfect as a model of 
didactic poetry, but filled with dangerous sentiments. 

The death of this great poet occurred at his home at 
Twickenham on the 30th of May, 1744. Here, with a 
loving mother, he had lived continuously from the time 
of his purchase of the Twickenham home to the time 
of his death. 

CRITICISM BY KEY. STOPFORD BROOKE. 

Pope is our greatest master in didactic poetry, not so 
much because of the worth of the thoughts as because 
of the masterly form in which they are put. The Essay 


100 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

on Man , though its philosophy is poor and not his own, 
is crowded with lines that have passed into daily use. 
The Essay on Criticism is equally full of critical precepts 
put with exquisite skill. The Satires and Epistles are 
also didactic. They set virtue and cleverness over 
against vice and stupidity, and they illustrate both by 
types of character, in the drawing of which Pope is 
without a rival in our literature. His translation of 
Homer is made with great literary art, but for that 
very reason it does not make us feel the simplicitj^ 
and directness of Homer. It has neither %e manner 
of Homer nor the spirit of the Greek life, just as Pope’s 
descriptions of Nature have neither the manner nor the 
spirit of Nature. The heroic couplet , in which he wrote 
his translation and nearly all his work, he used in va¬ 
rious subjects with a correctness that has never been 
surpassed, but it sometimes fails from being too smooth 
and its cadences too regular. Finally, he was a true 
artist, hating those who degraded his art, and at a time 
when men followed it for money and place, and the 
applause of the club and of the town, he loved it faith¬ 
fully to the end for its own sake. 

ESSAY ON MAN. 

Note. —The following are the closing lines of Epistle I. of Pope’s 
Essay on Man: 

Far as creation’s ample range extends, 

The scale of sensual, mental powers ascends: 

Mark how it mounts to man’s imperial race, 

From the green myriads in the peopled grass ! 

Analysis.—1. Supply ellipsis. What does this line modify ? 

1. 2. Name the subject and the predicate of the sentence. 

2. sensual here means “ material.” 

3. What is the subject of Mark. Name also the modifiers of Mark. 

4. in the peopled grass. What kind of modifier ? 




ALEXANDER POPE. 


101 


What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme! 5 

The mole’s dim curtain and the lynx’s beam ; 

Of smell, the headlong lioness between, 

And hound sagacious on the tainted green; 

Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood 

To that which warbles through the vernal wood. 10 

The spider’s touch, how exquisitely fine! 

Feels at each thread, and lives along the line: 

In the nice bee, what sense, so subtly true, 

From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew! 

How instinct varies in the groveling swine, 15 

Compared, half-reasoning elephant, with thine! 

’Twixt that and reason what a nice barrier! 

For ever separate, yet for ever near! 

Remembrance and reflection how allied! 

What thin partitions sense from thought divide! 20 

And middle natures—how they long to join, 

Yet never pass the insuperable line! 


Analysis.—5. Supply the ellipsis. What does the adjunct betwixt , 
etc. modify? 

6. Give the case of curtain and beam. Supply the ellipsis and ex¬ 
plain the line. 

7. 8. Write this in prose, supplying the ellipsis, and give the gram¬ 
matical construction of the words. 

8. on the tainted green, on the grass tainted with the scent of game. 
What figure ? 

9. the life that fills the flood. Explain the figures. 

10. Explain the line. Name the figure. 

11. Name the subject and the predicate. 

12. Supply the subjects necessary to complete the sense. 

13. Dispose of so and subtly. 

14. Name the subject of extracts. 

16. elephant. Give the case. 

with thine. Thine has the possessive form, but it is in the ob¬ 
jective case after with. 

18. For ever separate, etc. Supply the ellipsis. 

19. Supply the predicate, and parse. 

20. sense from thought divide, sensation from reason. What figure? 

21. middle natures. Give the construction. 



102 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Without this just gradation could they be 
Subjected, these to those, or all to thee ? 

The powers of all subdued by thee alone, 25 

Is not thy reason all these powers in one ? 

See through this air, this ocean, and this earth, 

All matter quick, and bursting into birth! 4 

Above, how high progressive life may go! 

Around, how wide! how deep extend below! 30 

Vast chain of being, which from God began!— 

Natures ethereal, human, angel, man, 

Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, 

No glass can reach; from infinite to thee, 

From thee to nothing. On superior powers 35 

Were we to press, inferior might on ours; 

Or in the full creation leave a void, 

Where, one step broken, the great scale’s destroyed: 

From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike, 

Tenth, or ten-thousandth, breaks the chain alike. 40 

And, if each system in gradation roll 
Alike essential to the amazing whole, 

The least confusion but in one, not all 
That system only, but the whole, must fall. 

Analysis. —24. these to those, or all to thee. Parse. 

25. all subdued, etc. Give grammatical construction. 

28. Dispose of quick and bursting. 

29. What does above, hovj high, modify ? 

30. around, how wide ! What do these words modify ? What does 
how, deep, below, each modify ? 

31-35. These five lines, ending with the word nothing, are inde¬ 
pendent in construction. 

33. what no eye can see, etc.; that is, microscopic beings. 

34. What participle is understood before from infinite ? 

35. 36. On superior jpoivers were we to press. Give the mode of each 
verb. 

37, 38. Give the mode of the verbs in' these lines. 

39. Give the construction of whatever. 

40. What do tenth, ten-thousandth, and alike modify ? 

42. alike essential. What does each word modify ? 

43, 44. Supply ellipsis, and rewrite. 



ALEXANDER POPE. 


103 


Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly, 45 

Planets and suns run lawless through the sky; 

Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled, 

Being on being wrecked, and world on world,— 

Heaven’s whole foundations to their centre nod, 

And Nature trembles to the throne of God. 50 

All this dread order break?—For whom? for thee? 

Vile worm ! O madness! pride! impiety ! 

What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread, 

Or hand to toil, aspired to be the head ? 

What if the head, the eye, or ear, repined 55 

To serve mere engines to the ruling mind? 

Just as absurd for any part to claim 
To be another in this general frame; 

Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains 
The great directing Mind of all ordains. 60 

All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 

Whose body Nature is, and God the soul: 


Notes. —45, 46. Let earth un¬ 
balanced .... fly, etc.; 
that is, If the earth fly from 
her orbit, then planets and 
suns will run, etc. 


54. Or hand to toil; that is, hand 
ordained to toil. 

56. To serve mere engines, etc.; 
that is, to serve as mere en- 
' gines, etc. 


Analysis. —45. Dispose of unbalanced and fly. 

46. Point out the figure. Dispose of lawless. 

47. world on world. Supply ellipsis. 

50. Point out the figure. 

51. Dispose of order break. 

52. Give the case of worm , madness , pride , impiety. 

53. Name the modifiers of foot. Explain the meaning and force 
of What. 

54. Name the subjects of aspired. 

57. Just as absurd, etc. Name the full modifier of absurd. 

57, 58. Name the modifiers of claim. 

59. 60. Explain the meaning. 

60. What figure in the line ? 

61. Parse but. What does it limit ? 

62. Whose body. Name the subject and the predicate. 

God the soul. Supply ellipsis, and analyze. 





104 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 


That, changed through all, and yet in all the same, 

Great in the earth as in the ethereal frame. 

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 65 

Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees, 

Lives through all life, extends through all extent. 

Spreads undivided, operates unspent, 

Breathes in our soul," informs our mortal part,— 

As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; 70 

As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns. 

As the rapt seraph that adores and burns : 

To him, no high, no low, no great, no small: 

He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. 

Cease, then, nor order imperfection name: 75 

Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. 

Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree, 

Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee. 

Submit. In this or any other sphere 

Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear; 80 

Safe in the hand of one disposing Power, 

Or in the natal or the mortal hour. 

Analysis.—63. Give construction of That. Name the predicates. 

changed through all. What does the phrase modify ? 

64. Great in the earth, etc. Supply ellipsis in this line. 

68. Parse undivided and unspent. 

70. As full, as perfect, etc. Supply ellipsis. 
in a hair as heart. Supply ellipsis. 

72. As the rapt seraph. Supply ellipsis. 

73. To him no high, etc. What is the meaning of this line? 

75. nor order imperfection name; that is, do not call order imperfec¬ 
tion. Imperfection is here a factitive noun. (See Baub’s Grammar , 
p. 164, note 4.) 

76. Dispose of what. 

77; Know thy own point, etc. Naturally, what follows would be in¬ 
troduced by the conjunction that. 

77. 78. The . . . thee. Name the subject. 

80. Secure to he, etc. Dispose of secure. 

81. Point out and name the figure. 

82. Or ... . or. According to modem usage this would be either 
.... or. Meaning of natal and mortal hour t 



CONTEMPORANEO US WRITERS. 


105 


All nature is but art, unknown to thee; 

All chance, direction which thou canst not see; 

All discord, harmony not understood; 85 

All partial evil, universal good. 

And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite. 

One truth is clear: Whatever is, is right. 


Analysis. —83-86. Supply ellipsis. Rewrite. Name the subjects 
and the predicates. 

88. Whatever is, is right. Give grammatical construction of each of 
these words. The whole sentence is in apposition with what? 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 

POETS. 

Matthew Prior (1664^1721).—Educated at St. John’s College, 
Cambridge. In early life a waiter at a hotel. Author of Solo¬ 
mon and a number of lighter poems. 

John Gay (1688-1732).—A brilliant poet. Noted for his grace 
of expression. Author of Trivia and The Beggar’s Opera. 

Dr. Edward Young (1681-1765).—Author of Night Thoughts , 
a sombre poem, written in blank verse. 

Allan Ramsay (1686-1758).—A Scotch writer, mostly of lyrics. 
First a wig-maker, then a bookseller. Author of The Gentle 
Shepherd and The Yellow-haired. Laddie. 

James Thomson (1700-1748).—The son of a minister. Edu¬ 
cated at the University of Edinburgh. Was made surveyor- 
general of the Leeward Islands, where he paid a man to do 
the work while he spent the time in writing poetry. Author 
of The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence. 

William Collins (1721-1759).—Celebrated as a writer of odes. 
Educated at Oxford. Was also a fine descriptive writer. His 
best poems are The Passions and his odes to Liberty and Evening. 

Mark Akenside (1721-1770).—Was a physician. His chief 
poem is his Pleasures of the Imagination. 




106 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


PROS.E-WRITERS. 

Sir Richard Steele (1675-1729).—A great essayist. Born in 
Dublin of English parents. A schoolmate of Addison, both in 
London and at Oxford. Founded The Taller in 1709, the orig¬ 
inal of periodical literature. Began The Spectator with Addison 
in 1711, both being contributors of rare merit. Died in poverty 
in Wales, having been a great spendthrift most of his life. 

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745).—A writer of keen satires. Edu¬ 
cated at Trinity College, Dublin. Took holy orders in 1693. 
Became dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin, in 1713. His two greatest 
works are the Tale of a Tab , a satire on Presbyterians and 
Papists, and Gulliver’s Travels , a political satire. Swift died 
insane. 

Daniel Defoe (1661-1731).—The son of a London butcher. 
A voluminous writer of fiction and political pamphlets. Was 
unexcelled in painting fiction in the colors of truth. His style 
is simple and natural. Author of Robinson Crusoe. 

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727).—A distinguished philosopher. 
Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Author of Principia, 
a work on Optics, etc. 

George Berkeley (1734-1753).—Known as “Bishop Berke¬ 
ley.” A noted but erratic metaphysical writer. Author of 
Theory of Vision. 

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1690-1761).—Best known by 
her graceful and graphic Letters , descriptive of travel and 
foreign fashions. 


VI. 

AGE OF JOHl^SOE'. 

1750-1800. 

Reigns of George II. and George III. 

The age of Johnson, which includes the latter half 
of the eighteenth century, presents literature of a higher 
moral tone than that of the preceding age. The writers 
of this age also were less artificial in their mode of ex¬ 
pression, and depended more on Nature to furnish both 
sentiment and thought. It was a time also in which 
nearly all the writers led a precarious life, many of 
them often being on the verge of starvation. It was a 
time when, as Macaulay paints it, “ all that is squalid 
and miserable might now be summed up in the word 
poet.” Some, indeed, like Johnson, struggled through 
difficulties to fame and competence, but the great mass 
lived in garrets and cellars, doing the work of literary 
hacks, and died in the most extreme poverty. 


9. THOMAS GRAY, 

1716 - 1771 . 

Thomas Gray, the most artistic of English poets, 
was born in Cornhill on the 26th of December, 1716. 
His father, a money-scrivener by profession, was a man 
of such violent temper that Mrs. Gray separated from 
him, and in partnership with her sister opened a mil¬ 
linery-shop in Cornhill. With her savings in this es- 

107 



108 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


tablishment she educated her son. Having a brother 
at Eton who was one of the masters, she sent Thomas 
thither, and here he was prepared for college. Among 
his most valued friends was Horace Walpole, after¬ 
ward a prose-writer of great merit. 

At the age of nineteen Gray entered Peterhouse Col¬ 
lege at Cambridge as a pensioner. But school-life was 
unpleasant to him ; he had no taste for either mathe¬ 
matics or metaphysics, though he was particularly fond 
of the classics. At the close of his school-life he and 
Walpole undertook a tour of France and Italy. Their 
tastes, however, were so at variance that they finally 
quarreled and. separated. 

Gray returned to England, and after his father’s 
death settled at Cambridge, where he spent most of 
the subsequent part of his life. He was not fond of 
the place, but he was an ardent lover of books, and 
the University libraries were the great attraction to 
him. A madcap freak of some of the students at Pe¬ 
terhouse, by which, with the - cry of fire, they frightened 
Gray to such an extent that he threw his rope-ladder 
from his window and then hastily descended, only to 
drop into a tub of water placed to receive him, caused 
him to remove from Peterhouse to Pembroke Hall. 

Gray’s first poem, his Ode to Spring, appeared in 
1742, and soon thereafter he produced also an excellent 
poem entitled A Distant Prospect of Eton College , though 
it was not published until some years later. 

In 1757, the post of poet-laureate having become va¬ 
cant through the death of Colley Cibber, the position 
was offered to Gray, but he declined it. Eleven years 
later he accepted the professorship of Modern History 
at Cambridge, a position worth four hundred pounds a 
year, which he had been seeking for some years. 

Gray is best known by his Elegy in a Country Church - 


THOMAS GRAY. 


109 


yard, published in 1750. It is said that the poet re¬ 
vised and corrected this poem for eight years before 
giving it to the public. It ran rapidly through eleven 
editions, and it has been translated more than fifty 
times-, into German, Italian, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and 
Portuguese. 

By some the two odes, The Progress of Poesy and The 
Bards , are considered his best poems, but neither of 
these is so popular as the Elegy. Gray was the author 
also of many excellent letters, written while he was 
traveling among the lakes of Cumberland and West¬ 
moreland. 

Having been long afflicted with the gout, he died of 
this disease in his fifty-sixth year, and was, at his own 
request, buried by the side of his mother, to whom he 
had always been most tenderly attached. 

CRITICISM BY MACKINTOSH. 

Gray was a poet of a far higher order than Gold¬ 
smith, and of an almost opposite kind of merit. Of all 
English poets, he was the most finished artist. He at¬ 
tained the highest kind of splendor of which poetical 

style seems capable.Almost all Gray’s poetry was 

lyrical—that species which, issuing from the mind in 
the highest state of excitement, requires an intensity 
of feeling which, for a long composition, the genius of 
no poet could support. Those who complained of its 
brevity and rapidity only confessed their Own inability 
to follow the movements of poetical inspiration. Of 
the two grand attributes of the ode, Dryden had dis¬ 
played the enthusiasm, Gray exhibited the magnif¬ 
icence. He is also the only modern -English writer 
whose Latin verses deserve general notice, but we must 
lament that such difficult trifles had diverted his genius 
from its natural objects. 



110 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 

1. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 

The lowing herd winds slowly o’er the lea, 

The plowman homeward plods his weary way, 

And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 

2. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 5 

And all the air a solemn stillness holds, 

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight. 

And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds : 

3. Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower, 

The moping owl does to the moon complain 10 

Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, 

Molest her ancient solitary reign. 


Notes. —1. The curfew. In olden 
times a bell was rung at night¬ 
fall as a signal to cover fires. 
The word is derived from the 
French couvrir, to cover, and 
feu, fire. 


11. bower, from Anglo-Saxon bur, 
a cottage. Used by Gray in 
the sense of a chamber or 
lodging-place. 

16. rude forefathers ; that is, un¬ 
cultured ancestors. 


Analysis. —1. tolls the knell. What figure? 
of 'parting day. What figure? 

2. The lowing herd. What figure? Should the verb be winds or 
wind ? 

3. The plowman, etc. Rewrite this line in as many ways as you can. 

5. glimmering landscape. What figure ? Analyze the sentence. 

6. Dispose of stillness. What figure in the line ? 

7. 8. What kind of elements do these lines form? 

8. Point out the figures in the line. 

9. Dispose of Save, 
ivy-mantled. What figure ? 

9-12. What kind of clause? 

10. What figure in the line ? 

11. Of such as. Parse such and as. 

wandering, etc. What is the office of this phrase ? 

12. reign is here used in the sense of realm. 





THOMAS GRAY. 


Ill 


4. Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree’s shade, 

Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, 

Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, 15 

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. 

5. The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, 

The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, 

The cock’s shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, 

No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. 20 

6. For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, 

Or busy housewife ply her evening care: 

No children run to lisp their sire’s return, 

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. 

7. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 25 

Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; 

How jocund did they drive their team a-field! 

How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! 

Analysis.— 13-16. Beneath , etc. This is a periodic sentence. Re¬ 
write in prose order. 

13. Parse the word shade. 

14. What does the line modify ? 

15. Each. Dispose of. Name modifiers of laid. What figures in 
the line ? 

16. What figure in the line ? 

17. The breezy call , etc. What figure ? 

18. The swallow twittering. What figure ? 

19. Point out the figure in the line? 

20. Subject of shall rouse ? Point out the figure in the line. 

21. blazing earth shall burn. What figure ? 

22. evening care. Name the figure. 

23. children. Notice that this is a- double plural. The old form 
was childer, to which has been added the Anglo-Saxon plural ending 
en , thus making the word childeren, since changed to children. 

23, 24. Explain the force of the infinitives in these lines. 

25. Point out the figure in the line. 

26. furrow and stubborn glebe. Explain the figures. 
has broke. Why this form ? 

27. a-field. Explain. 

28. bowed the woods , etc. What figure ? 



112 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


8. Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, 

Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; 30 

Nor Grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, 

The short and simple annals of the poor. 

9. The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth, e’er gave, 

Awaits alike the inevitable hour:— 35 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

10. Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, 

If Memory .o’er their tomb no trophies raise, 

Where, through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, 

The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. 40 

11. Can storied urn or animated bust 

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ? 


Analysis. —29. What figure on Ambition ? In what mode is mock ? 
Name the objects of mock. 

30. What is the effect of ly in such words as homely f 

31. Grandeur. What figure on this word? 
toil and smile. Criticise the rhyme. 

33-35. What is the subject of the sentence ? Many editions give 
the word awaits “await,” on the supposition that lines 33 and 34 
constitute the subject. 

34. Name the figures in the line. 

35. inevitable hour. What is the meaning ? 

36. but. Grammatical construction ? What does the word modify ? 

37. ye proud. Grammatical construction ? 

38. Point out and name figures in the line. Name the modifiers 
of raise. 

39. 40. These lines refer to Westminster Abbey, because of its being 
the burial-place of Chaucer, Spenser, Dryden, and others. 

39. The meaning of fretted f Meaning of vault ? 

storied, painted with stories, usually from Scripture. 
storied urn. To what custom does this refer ? 
animated bust. Is “ animated ” a good word in referring here to 
a marble bust ? 

42. Point out the figure in the line. 



THOMAS GRAY. 


113 


Can Honor’s voice provoke the silent dust, 

Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death ? 

12. Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 45 

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; 

Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, 

Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre: 

13. But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 

Rich with the spoils of time, did ne’er unroll; 50 

Chill Penury repressed their noble rage, 

And froze the genial current of the soul. 

14. Full many a gem, of purest ray serene, 

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear: 

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 55 

And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 


15. Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast 
The little tyrant of his fields withstood ; 


Notes. —50. unroll. Volumes of 
manuscript were formerly 
in the shape of a roll. 

51. rage, inspiration. 

53. purest ray serene. This is 
an imitation of Milton’s fa¬ 
vorite arrangement of ad¬ 
jectives. 


57. Hampden. John Hampden 
was an English statesman 
and patriot, and a strong 
opponent of Charles I. Also, 
subsequently a leader in the 
Civil War. He received 
his death-wound in the 
fight at Chalgrove Field. 


Analysis.— 43. Honor’s voice. What figure ? 

provoke , meaning, in its etymological sense, “ to call forth.” 
silent dust. What figure ? 

44. Point out the figure in the line. 

46. Meaning of the line ? Point out the figure. 

47. Dispose of the words Hands and that. 

47, 48. Meaning of each line? Figure in each? 

49, 50. Point out the figures. 

51. Chill Penury. What figure? 

52. froze .... current. Meaning and figure ? 

53. Dispose of Full and many a. 

55. to blush unseen. Grammatical construction ? 


8 





114 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, 

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood. 60 

16. Th’ applause of listening senates to command, 

The threats of pain and ruin to despise, 

To scatter plenty o’er a smiling land, 

And read their history in a nation’s eyes, 

17. Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone 65 

Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined ; 
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, 

And shut the gates of mercy on mankind: 

18. The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, 

To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, 70 

Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride 
With incense kindled at the Muse’s flame. 


19. Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife 
Their sober wishes never learned to stray ; 

Along the cool, sequestered vale of life 75 

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. 


Notes.—66. Their growing vir¬ 
tues, the growth of their 
virtues. 


73. madding, furious. 

ignoble strife, dishonorable 
contention. 


Analysis. —59. What is meant by mute inglorious Milton ? 

Milton. Who was Milton ? 

60. Who was Cromwell f 

How does the poet imply his belief in Cromwell’s guilt ? 
61-65. Name the phrase-objects of forbade. 

64. Give the mode of read. 

65. circumscribed. Name the subject. 

67. Forbade. What is the subject ? Name the five phrase-objects. 
67-72. Name the modifiers of each infinitive. 

70-72. Name the figures in these lines. 

73. What does the line modify ? 

75. vale of life. What figure? 

75, 76. Express the two lines in prose. 

76. Meaning of noiseless tenor of their way? 





THOMAS GRAY. 


115 


20. Yet e’en these bones from insult to protect, 

Some frail memorial still erected nigh, 

With uncouth rhymes and^hapeless sculpture decked, 

. Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. 80 

21. Their name, their years, spelt by th’ unlettered muse, 

The place of fame and elegy supply: 

And many a holy text around she strews, 

That teach the rustic moralist to die. 


22. For who, to dumb Forgetfulness a prey, 85 

This pleasing anxious being e’er resigned, 

Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, 

Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind? 


23. On some fond breast the parting soul relies, 

Some pious drops the closing eye requires; 90 

E’en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, 

E’en in our ashes live their wonted fires. 


24. For thee, who, mindful of the unhonored dead, 
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate; 


Notes. —77. these bones, their 
bones. 

79. uncouth, rude. 


84. to die, how to die. 

88. Nor cast ; that is, did not cast. 
93. For thee ; that is, as for thee. 


Analysis— 77-80. Write the stanza in prose. 

81. Their name. To what does Their refer? 

Meaning of unlettered muse ? 

81, 82. Predicate of the sentence ? 

84. That teach. What is the antecedent of That f Should the 
word be teach or teaches f 

84. Meaning of rustic moralist t 

85, 86. Rewrite in prose order. Grammatical construction of prey t 

87. cheerful day. What figure ? 

88. Give the syntax of the word behind. 

90. What is the meaning of pious drops? What figure? 

91. Point out the figure in the line. 

91, 92. Explain the use of Hen. 

93. Who is meant by thee ? 

94. Give the meaning of artless. 





116 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

If chance, by lonely Contemplation led, 95 

Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate; 

25. Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,— 

“ Oft have we seen him at the peep of dgwn 
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away, 

To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. 100 

26. “ There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, 

That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, 

His listless length at noontide would he stretch, 

And pore upon the brook that babbles by. 

27. “ Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, 105 

Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove; 

Now drooping, woeful, wan, like one forlorn, 

Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love. 

28. “ One morn I missed him on the ’customed hill, 

Along the heath and near his favorite tree; 110 

Another came; nor yet beside the rill, 

Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he. 


Notes.—95. If chance, if per¬ 
chance. 

97. Haply, possibly. 


105. Hard by, close by. 

111. another came, another 
morn came. 


Analysis. —95. by lonely , etc. What does the phrase modify? 

97. hoary-headed. Give meaning. 

101-103. Name modifiers of stretch. Is beech and stretch a good 
rhyme ? 

103. What is the meaning of listless length ? 

104. Meaning of pore in this line ? Point out the figure in the 
line. 

105. now smiling, etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

107. now drooping, etc. What does this phrase modify? 

Give the construction of like. Give the meaning of wan. 

108. crazed with care. What does it modify ? 

109. morn. What figure of orthography is this? 





THOMAS GRAY. 


117 


29. “ The next, with dirges due, in sad array, 

Slow through the churchway path we saw him borne; 
Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay 115 

Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.” 

THE EPITAPH. 

30. Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth, 

A Youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown; 

Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth, 

And Melancholy marked him for her own. 120 

31. Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere 

Heaven did a recompense as largely : 

He gave to Misery all he had,—a tear, 

He gained from Heaven (’twas all he wished) a friend. 

32. No farther seek his merits to disclose, 125 

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode 
(There they alike in trembling hope repose), 

The bosom of his Father and his God. 


Note.— 114. churchway: this is likely churchward. 


Analysis. —113. The next. What word is understood ? 

114. slow. Why slow, instead of slowly ? 

115. ( for thou canst read). Is it likely that the “ hoary-headed 
swain” could read? 

115. the lay. What does it mean here? 

117. lap of Earth. What figure ? 

118. Give grammatical construction of Youth. 

119. 120. Point out the figures. 

122. largely. What figure? 

123. Point out the figure in the line. Parse tear. 

125. No farther. Is this the proper form? 

126. draw. Give grammatical construction. 

dread abode. What does the expression mean ? 




10. SAMUEL JOHNSON, 

1709 - 1784 . 

Samuel Johnson, bom in Lichfield on the 18th of Sep¬ 
tember, 1709, was the son of a poor bookseller. John¬ 
son was a sickly child from birth, and the disease with 
which he was afflicted (scrofula) soon marked him for 
life. His early education was gained mostly at Stour¬ 
bridge, but his attendance at school helped him less 
than his wonderful memory and his great taste for 
books. In his nineteenth year he entered Pembroke 
College, Oxford, but he never graduated, as his father 
died and he lacked the means to pay for a full course 
of instruction. 

Like his father, he was the victim of melancholy and 
a fear of insanity that constantly haunted him, which 
he says kept him mad half his life. His peculiar dis¬ 
position led him into all sorts of frolics and riots while 
at college, and he treated few with respect, or even 
civility. 

After leaving college he trudged to Market Bosworth, 
in Leicestershire, where he became usher in a school. 
His natural temperament, however, unfitted him for 
this work, and he failed. He next became translator 
for a bookseller in Birmingham, and soon thereafter 
married a Mrs. Porter, a woman of little taste and 
almost twice his own age. With her fortune of eight 
hundred pounds Johnson attempted to start a school 
of his own, but he never secured a sufficient number 
of pupils to support himself and pay the rent. Fail¬ 
ing again, he trudged to London with little Davy Gar- 
118 


SAMUEL JOHNSON. 


119 


rick, one of his pupils and afterward the great actor, as 
his companion, in search of literary work. After reach¬ 
ing London and finding employment, the pen scarcely 
left his hand for twenty-six years. During much of this 
time he wrote for the Gentleman's Magazine. 

His first claim to literary fame was established by his 
poem London , written in imitation of Juvenal. For this 
poem he received ten guineas, and it served also to make 
him a favorite with *the booksellers. In 1744 he wrote 
the Life of Richard Savage , one of the best of biographies; 
and three years later he published a satire entitled the 
Vanity of Human Wishes. It was in this 3 ^ ear also that he 
began the preparation of his Dictionary of the English 
Language , which occupied his time and attention for 
eight years, and for which he was to receive fifteen hun¬ 
dred and seventy-five pounds. During these years he 
also carried on a semi-weekly paper called The Rambler , 
modeled somewhat after The Spectator. The Rambler , 
which was issued from 1750 to 1752, was followed by 
The Idler , a more readable sheet, which also was issued 
for two years. 

In 1759, Johnson published his only novel, Rasselas, a 
Tale of Abyssinia. His Journey to the Hebrides was writ¬ 
ten about 1773, and in 1781 The Lives of the Poets, the last 
of his important works, appeared. 

His st 3 7 le has been spoken of as Johnsonese. He rarely 
used a simple word when a ponderous classic one could 
be substituted. It is said that he would sometimes even 
correct himself in conversation and translate his oral 
sentences into more classic style. Goldsmith character¬ 
ized him truthfully when he said to Johnson, “ If you 
were to write a fable about little fishes, doctor, you would 
make the little fishes talk like whales.” 

Johnson’s old age was made happy by an annual 
pension of three hundred pounds, settled on him by 


120 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


the King in 1762. He died in December, 1784, and 
was buried in Westminster Abbey with the eminent 
poets of whom he had been the biographer. 

CRITICISM (“ CHAMBERS’S CYCLOPAEDIA”). 

No prose-writer of that day escaped the contagion of 
Johnson’s peculiar style. He banished for a long period 
the naked simplicity of Swift and the idiomatic graces 
of Addison; he depressed the literature and poetry of 
imagination, while he elevated that of the understand¬ 
ing; he based criticism on strong sense and solid judg¬ 
ment, not on scholastic subtleties and refinement; and, 
though some of the higher qualities and attributes of 
genius eluded his grasp and observation, the withering 
scorn and invective with which he assailed all affected 
sentimentalism, immorality, and licentiousness intro¬ 
duced a pure and healthful and invigorating atmo¬ 
sphere into the crow.ded walks of literature.As a 

man , Johnson was an admirable representative of the 
Englishman; as an author, his course was singularly 
pure, high-minded, and independent. He could boast, 
with more truth than Burke, that “ he had no arts but 
manly arts.” At every step in his progress his passport 
was talent and virtue; and when the royal countenance 
and favor were at length extended to him, it was but a 
ratification by the sovereign of the wishes and opinions 
entertained by the best and wisest of the nation. 

THE VOYAGE OF LIFE. 

Note.— The following selection, written by Dr. Johnson, is taken 
from The Rambler. 

“ Life,” says Seneca, “ is a voyage, in the progress of 
which we are perpetually changing our scenes: we first 


Analysis. — 1 . voyage. What figure? 
2. Meaning of scenes ? 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 


121 


leave childhood behind us, then youth, then the years 
of ripened manhood, then the better and more pleasing 
part of old age.” The perusal of this passage having 
incited in me a train of reflections on the state of man, 
the incessant fluctuation of his wishes, the gradual 
change of his disposition to all external objects, and 
the thoughtlessness with which he floats along the 
Stream of Time, I sank into a slumber amidst my med¬ 
itations, and on a sudden found my ears filled with the 
tumult of labor, the shouts of alacrity, the shrieks of 
alarm, the whistle of winds, and the dash of waters. 

My astonishment for a time repressed my curiosity; 
but soon recovering myself so far as to inquire whither 
we were going, and what was the cause of such clamor 
and confusion, I was told that they were launching out 
into the Ocean of Life; that we had already passed the 
Straits of Infancy, in which multitudes had perished, 
some by the weakness and fragility of their vessels, and 
more by the folly, perverseness, or negligence of those 
who undertook to steer them; and that we were now 
on the main sea, abandoned to the winds and billows, 
without any other means of security than the care of 
the pilot, whom it was always in our power to choose 

Analysis.—5. perusal. Give grammatical construction. 

9. thoughtlessness. Give grammatical construction. 

10. Stream of Time. What figure ? 

11. on a sudden. Substitute a single word. 
filled. Give the grammatical construction. 

13. whistle of winds, and the dash of waters. Point out the figure. 

15. recovering, etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

18. Ocean of Life. Name the figure. 

19. Point out the figure in the line. 

20. Explain the figure in this line. 

23. main sea. What figure ? 

23. Point out another figure in the line. 

24, 25. the care of the pilot. What figure ? 


5 

10 

15 

20 

25 



122 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


among great numbers that offered their direction and 
assistance. 

-I then looked round with anxious eagerness, and, 
first turning my eyes behind me, saw a stream flowing 
through flowery islands, which every one that sailed 
along seemed to behold with pleasure, but no sooner 
touched than the current, which, though not noisy or 
turbulent, was yet irresistible, bore him away. Beyond 
these islands, all was darkness; nor could any of the 
passengers describe the shore at which he first em¬ 
barked. 

Before me, and on each side, was an expanse of 
waters violently agitated, and covered with so thick a 
mist that the most perspicacious eye could see but a 
little way. It appeared to be full of rocks and whirl¬ 
pools; for many sank unexpectedly while they were 
courting the gale with full sails, and insulting those 
whom they had left behind. So numerous, indeed, 
were the dangers, and so thick the darkness, that no 
caution could confer security. Yet there were many 
who, by false intelligence, betrayed their followers into 
whirlpools, or, by violence, pushed those whom they 
found in their way against the rocks. 

The current was invariable and insurmountable; but 
though it was impossible to sail against it, or to return 
to the place that was once passed, yet it was not so vio¬ 
lent as to allow no opportunities for dexterity or cour- 


Analysis. —29. turning , etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

30. Name the figures in the line. 

31. Parse along. What figure in the line ? 

32. touched , etc. What is the subject? 

39. Meaning of perspicacious ? Parse hut. 

42. courting the gale. What figure ? 

43. Give grammatical construction of the word behind. 

49. Explain the figure on current. 


30 

35 

40 

45 

50 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 


123 


age, since, though none could retreat back from danger, 
yet they might often avoid it by oblique direction. 

It was, however, not very common to steer with much 
care or prudence ; for, by some universal infatuation, 
every man appeared to think himself safe, though he 
saw his consorts every moment sinking round him; and 
no sooner had the waves closed over them than their 
fate and misconduct were forgotten; the voyage was 
pursued with the same jocund confidence: every man 
congratulated himself upon the soundness of his vessel, 
and believed himself able to stem the whirlpool in 
which his friend was swallowed, or glide over the rocks 
on which he was dashed. Nor was it often observed 
that the sight of a wreck made any man change his 
course : if he turned aside for a moment, he soon for¬ 
got the rudder, and left himself again to the disposal 
of chance. 

This negligence did not proceed from indifference, or 
from weariness of their present condition; for not one 
of those who thus rushed upon destruction failed, when 
he was sinking, to call loudly upon his associates for 
that help which could not now be given him; and 
many spent their last moments in cautioning others 
against the folly by which they were intercepted in the 
midst of their course. Their benevolence was some¬ 
times praised; but their admonitions were unregarded. 

Analysis. —53. retreat back. Criticise. 

53, 54. Point out the figure in these lines. 

55. Give the meaning of this line. 

57. Dispose of the word safe. 

61-65. every man , etc. Explain the meaning of these lines. 

63. stem the whirlpool. What figure ? 

64. glide over the rocks. What figure ? 

65. 66. Point out the figure in these lines. 

68. What figure in the line ? 

72. rushed wpon destruction. What figure? 


55 

60 

65 

70 

75 



124 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


The vessels in which they had embarked, being con¬ 
fessedly unequal to the turbulence of the Stream of 80 
Life,-were visibly impaired in the course of the voyage; 
so that every passenger was certain, that how long soever 
he might, by favorable accidents or by incessant vigil¬ 
ance, be preserved, he must sink at last. 

This necessity of perishing might have been expected 85 
to sadden the gay and intimidate the daring, at least to 
keep the melancholy and timorous in perpetual torments, 
and hinder them from any enjoyment of the varieties 
and gratifications which Nature offered them as the 
solace of their labor. Yet, in effect, none seemed less 90 
to expect destruction than those to whom it was most 
dreadful; they all had the art of concealing theif dan¬ 
gers from themselves; and those who knew their in¬ 
ability to bear the sight of the terrors that embarrassed 
their way took care never to look forward, but found 95 
some amusement for the present moment, and generally 
entertained themselves by playing with Hope, who was 
the constant associate of the Voyage of Life. 

Yet all that Hope ventured to promise, even to those' 
whom she favored most, was, not that they should escape, 100 
but that they should sink at last; and with this promise 
every one was satisfied, though he laughed at the rest 
for seeming to believe it. Hope, indeed, apparently 
mocked the credulity of her companions; for, in pro- 


Analysis. —81, 82. voyage .... every 'passenger. What figures? 
82. Parse how and soever. 

■85. Name the infinitive modifiers of expected. 

89. What figure on Nature ? 

90. What does less modify ? 

97, 98. Hope .... associate. What figures ? 

99. Give the grammatical construction of even. 

100. she favored, etc. What figure? 

104. Meaning of credulity ? 




SAMUEL JOHNSON. 


125 


portion as their vessels grew leaky, she redoubled her 
assurances of safety: and none were more busy in mak¬ 
ing provisions for a long voyage than they whom all 
but themselves saw likely to perish soon by irreparable 
decay. 

In the midst of the Current of Life was the Gulf of 
Intemperance—a dreadful whirlpool, interspersed with 
rocks, of which the pointed crags were concealed under 
water, and the tops covered with herbage on which Ease 
spread couches of repose, and with shades where Pleas¬ 
ure warbled the song of invitation. Within sight of these 
rocks all who sailed on the Ocean of Life must neces¬ 
sarily pass. Reason, indeed, was always at hand to steer 
the passengers through a narrow outlet by which they 
might escape; but very few could, by her entreaties or 
remonstrances, be induced to put the rudder into her 
hand without stipulating that she should approach so 
near unto the rocks of Pleasure that they might solace 
themselves with a short enjoyment of that delicious 
region; after which they always determined to pursue 
their course without any other deviation. 

Reason was too often prevailed upon so far by these 
promises as to venture her charge within the eddy of the 

Analysis. —105. vessels grew leaky. Explain the figure. 

106-109. none were .... decay. Analyze. 

110. Name the figures in this line. 

111, 112. whirlpool and rocks. Explain the figures. 

113. Point out the figure. 

113.114. Ease .... couches of repose. What figures? 

114.115. shades where Pleasure , etc. Explain the figures. 

117. What figure on Reason? 

1 ]&. narrow outlet. What figure? 

119. Parse but very few. 

120,121. Point out the figure in these lines. 

123, 124. delicious region. What figure ? 

126. prevailed upon. Parse. 


105 

110 

115 

120 

125 



126 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Gulf of Intemperance, where, indeed, the circumvolution 
was weak, but yet interrupted the course of the vessel, 
and drew it by insensible rotations toward the centre. 
She then repented her temerity, and, with all her force, 
endeavored to retreat: but the draught of the gulf was 
generally too strong to be overcome; and the passenger, 
having danced in circles with a pleasing and giddy ve¬ 
locity, was at last overwhelmed and lost. Those few 
whom Reason was able to extricate generally suffered 
so many shocks upon the points which shot out from 
the rocks of Pleasure, that they were unable to continue 
their course with the same strength and facility as before, 
hut floated along timorously and feebly, endangered by 
every breeze, and shattered by every ruffle of the water, 
till they sank by slow degrees, after long struggles and 
innumerable expedients, always repining at their own 
folly, and warning others against the first approach to 
the Gulf of Intemperance. 

There were artists who professed to repair the breaches 
and stop the leaks of the vessels which had been shat¬ 
tered on the rocks of Pleasure. Many appeared to have 
great confidence in their skill; and some, indeed, were 
preserved by it from sinking who had received only a 
single blow; but I remarked that few vessels lasted long 
which had been much repaired; nor was it found that 
the artists themselves continued afloat longer than those 
who had least of their assistance. 


Analysis. —128,129. circumvolution was weak. What figure? 
132. the draught, etc. Explain the figure. 

134. What does the phrase having danced, etc. modify ? 

141. Point out the figures in the line. 

144. first approach. Name the figure. 

146. artists . ... to repair the breaches. What figures ? 

147,148. Name the figures in these lines. 

151, 152. vessels .... much repaired. What figure ? 


130 

135 

140 

145 

150 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 127 

The only advantage which, in the Voyage of Life, the 
cautious had above the negligent, was that they sank 
later and more suddenly; for they passed forward till 
they had sometimes seen all those in whose company 
they had issued from the Straits of Infancy perish in 
the way, and at last were overset by a cross-breeze, with¬ 
out the toil of resistance or the anguish of expectation. 
But such as had often fallen against the rocks of Pleas¬ 
ure commonly subsided by sensible degrees, contended 
long with the encroaching waters, and harassed them¬ 
selves by labors that scarce Hope herself could flatter 
with success. 

As I was looking upon the various fate of the multi¬ 
tude about me, I was suddenly alarmed with an ad¬ 
monition from some unknown Power: “ Gaze not idly 
upon others when thou thyself art sinking. Whence 
is this thoughtless tranquillity, when thou and they are 
equally endangered ?” I looked, and, seeing the Gulf 
of Intemperance before me, started and awaked. 


Analysis. —157. Parse forward and till. 

160. were overset. Explain the figure. 

162. Explain the line and name the figures. 

164. encroaching waters. Explain and name the figure. 

165. Dispose of the word scarce. 

167. various fate. Give a modern form. 

172. Dispose of seeing. What does the participial phrase modify? 

173. Explain the figure in this line. 


: 155 

160 

165 

170 



11. OLIVER GOLDSMITH, 

1728-1774. 

Oliver Goldsmith, the most charming and versatile 
writer of his time, was born in the county of Longford, 
Ireland, November 14, 1728. His father was a Prot¬ 
estant clergyman, who was then located in the little 
village of Pallas. In boyhood Oliver attended various 
schools, and in 1745 he passed the examination which 
admitted him as a sizar at Trinity College, Dublin. 
The sizar of those days was clad in a sleeveless gown 
made of coarse material, and a red cap. A part of his 
school-expenses were paid by his doing the work of a 
servant—sweeping the courts, carrying the dishes back 
and forth from the kitchen to the students’ dining-rooms, 
and other work of this character. Goldsmith was sensi¬ 
tive, and his position as a sizar was by no means con¬ 
genial to him. His uncle, who had assisted him in the 
payment of his school-bills while preparing for college, 
befriended him also while in college. But when Gold¬ 
smith’s father died in 1747, the young poet was left not 
only penniless, but also on the verge of starvation. It 
was at this period of his life that 1 he began to write 
street-ballads, for 'which he received a shilling apiece, 
and many a night he stole out from his quarters and 
watched their sale on the streets. Here, too, he showed 
that weakness for being indiscriminately benevolent 
which characterized his whole life, and it was a rare 
thing that he succeeded in bringing his money back 
with him. He almost invariably gave it up to such im¬ 
pecunious students or street-beggars as he met on the 
128 


OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 


129 


way. Goldsmith’s scholarship was superficial, and he 
took his degree at Trinity in 1749 very low down in the 
class, after which he returned to his home, where he 
spent two years. 

His life, measured by the standard of the present 
century, would be considered^ a melancholy failure. In 
1752 he went to Edinburgh, where he remained almost 
two years, studying medicine. He next spent a winter 
in Leyden, supporting himself by teaching English. 
We next find him at Padua, where he claims to have 
received the degree M. B., which gave him the title Dr. 
Goldsmith. We then find him traveling through Flan¬ 
ders, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy on foot, 
playing on his flute at night to pay for his supper, and 
lodging at the peasants’ cottages. 

When he returned to England.he first acted as assist¬ 
ant in a chemist’s shop, then attempted to follow his 
profession as a physician, and finally found employ¬ 
ment with a bookseller, who proposed to give him his 
board and a small salary to write for the Monthly Review. 
He soon, however, tired of this work, and went back to 
his usher-life at Dr. Milner’s school at Peckham. He 
next presented himself as a candidate for the position 
of surgeon’s mate in the navy, dressed in a suit of 
clothes borrowed for the occasion. He was rejected, 
however, and instead of returning the clothes he panned 
them. 

Failing in everything else, he at last settled down to 
authorship as a means of livelihood. He wrote many 
articles for reviews and magazines, but his first marked 
success as an author was The Traveler, published in 
1764, though his Chinese Letters had attracted consider¬ 
able attention several years before. 

In 1766 the Vicar of Wakefield , a novel, appeared, and 
in 1770 The Deserted Village , supposed to be descriptive 


130 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


of the life and incidents in the village of Lissoy, where 
he spent his boyhood days. These three are his most 
famous literary works, though he compiled a Roman 
History , a History of England , a History of Greece , and a 
History of Animated Nature. He wrote also several com¬ 
edies, She Stoops to Conquer being the best. While all 
his books, particularly his* historical works, show super¬ 
ficial scholarship, they are still characterized by Gold¬ 
smith’s admirable style. 

Goldsmith was improvident, and his money was spent 
a great deal more rapidly than he made it. At the time 
of his death, though he had an annual income of nearly 
two thousand pounds, he found himself heavily encum¬ 
bered with ever-increasing debts. He died April 4,1774, 
and was quietly buried in the Temple churchyard. 

CRITICISM BY WASHINGTON IRVING. 

There are few writers for whom the reader feels such 
personal kindness as for Oliver Goldsmith, for few have 
so eminently possessed the magic gift of identifying 
themselves with their writings. We read his character 
in every page, and grow into familiar intimacy with him 
as we read. The artless benevolence that beams through¬ 
out his works; the whimsical yet amiable views of hu¬ 
man life and human nature; the unforced humor, blend- 
ing^'so happily with good feeling and good sense, and 
singularly dashed at times with a pleasing melancholy ; 
even the very nature of his mellow and flowing and soft¬ 
ly-tinted style,—all seem to bespeak his moral as well 
as his intellectual qualities, and make us love the man 
at the same time that we admire the author. 

THE DESERTED VILLAGE. 

Note. —It is generally considered that the village here spoken of 
was the village of Lissoy, in which Goldsmith spent his childhood. 


OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 


131 


Washington Irving says that General Napier turned out all the ten¬ 
ants in order to add the farms to his private grounds, and that Cap¬ 
tain Hogan afterward restored the place to its previous condition in 
order to correspond with Goldsmith’s description. Macaulay, how¬ 
ever, says that the village never existed elsewhere than in the imag¬ 
ination of the poet, and that the prosperous village is the description 
of an English village, while in its desolated condition it represents 
an Irish village. 

I. 

Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain, 

Where health and plenty cheer’d the laboring swain, 

Where smiling Spring its earliest visit paid, 

And parting Summer’s lingering blooms delay’d ; 

Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease, 5 

Seats of my youth, when every sport could please, 

How often have I loiter’d o’er thy green, 

Where humble happiness endear’d each scene! 

How often have I paused on every charm, 

The shelter’d cot, the cultivated farm, 10 

The never-failing brook, the busy mill, 

The decent church that topp’d the neighboring hill, 

The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade, 

For talking age and whispering lovers made! 


Analysis. —1. Give the grammatical construction of Auburn and 
village. 

2. health and 'plenty cheer’d. What figure ? 

3. smiling Spring. What figure ? 

4. parting Summer’s lingering blooms, etc. What figure ? 

5. Meaning and construction of bowers in this line ? 

What figure in the line ? 

7, 8. Name the modifiers of loiteSd. 

9-14. Name the modifiers of have paused. 

9. What words in apposition with charm ? 

10. Meaning of cot ? 

12. Meaning of decent? 

13. Name modifiers of seats. 

14. talking age. What figure ? 



132 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


How often have I bless’d the coming day, 

When toil remitting lent its turn to play, 

And all the village train, from labor free, 

Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree, 

While many a pastime circled in the shade, 

The young contending as the old survey’d ; 

And many a gambol frolick’d o’er the ground, 

And sleights of art and feats of strength went round; 

And still as each repeated pleasure tired, 

Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired ; 

The dancing pair that simply sought renown, 

By holding out, to tire each other down; 

The swain mistrustless of his smutted face, 

While secret laughter titter’d round the place; 

The bashful virgin’s sidelong looks of love, 

The matron’s glance that would those looks reprove. 

These were thy charms, sweet village! sports like these, 
With sweet succession, taught e’en toil to please; 

These round thy bowers their cheerful influence shed; 
These were thy charms,—but all these charms are fled! 
Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn, 

Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn. 

Notes.— 16. toil remitting, toil 19. circled, went round, 
ceasing. 20. survey’d, looked on. 

Analysis. —16. lent its turn to play. Meaning? 

17. Meaning of all the village train ? What figure ? 

21. many a gambol froliclc? d. Explain. 

22. Meaning of went round t 

23. Dispose of still. Name the object of tired. 

25. What does the word simply modify ? 

26. holding out. Give grammatical construction. 

27. Give the meaning of mistrustless and smutted. 

29. Meaning of sidelong? 

32. e'en toil. Dispose of e'en. (See Daub’s Grammar, p. 208, note 1.) 

33. Write this line in prose order. 

34. are fled. Give the modern form. 

35. smiling village. What figure ? 

36. withdrawn. Explain. 


15 

20 

25 

30 

35 





OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 


133 


Amidst thy bowers the tyrant’s hand is seen, 

And desolation saddens all thy green: 

One only master grasps the whole domain, 

And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain. 40 

No more thy glassy brook reflects the day, 

But, choked with sedges, works its weary way. 

Along thy glades, a solitary guest, 

The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest; 

Amidst thy desert-walks the lapwing flies, 45 

And tires their echoes with unvaried cries; 

Sunk are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all; 

And the long grass o’ertops the mouldering wall; 

And trembling, shrinking from the spoiler’s hand, 

Far, far away, thy children leave the land. 50 

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 

Where wealth accumulates and men decay: 

Princes and lords may flourish or may fade 
(A breath can make them, as a breath has made); 

But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride, 55 

When once destroy’d, can never be supplied. 


Notes.— 39. one only, one single 
or sole. 

40. stints, etc., deprives of fruit¬ 
fulness. 


45. desert, deserted. 

49. the spoiler’s hand. This re¬ 
fers to the oppression of the 
extensive landholders. 


Analysis. —38. desolation saddens .... green. What figure ? 

40. Dispose of half a. 

41, 42. Explain the meaning of these lines. 

43, 44. Meaning of bittern ? Give grammatical construction of 
guest and bittern. 

47. Bewrite in prose order. 

48. o’ertops. Explain the use of the apostrophe. 

51. Parse ill and ills. 

52. Meaning of decay here ? Rewrite the line in prose. 

53-56. Explain these lines. Is may fade literal or figurative ? 

54. Point out the figure in the line. 

55. Meaning of a bold peasantry f 





134 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


A time there was, ere England’s griefs began, 

When every rood of ground maintain’d its man: 

For him light Labor spread her wholesome store, 

Just gave what life required, but gave no more; 60 

His best companions, innocence and health; 

And his best riches, ignorance of wealth. 

But times are alter’d: Trade’s unfeeling train 
Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain. 

Along the lawn where scatter’d hamlets rose, 65 

Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose, 

And every want to luxury allied, 

And every pang that folly pays to pride. 

Those gentle hours that Plenty bade to bloom; 

Those calm desires that ask’d but little room; 70 

Those healthful sports that graced the peaceful scene, 

Lived in each look, and brighten’d all the green,— 

These, far departing, seek a kinder shore; 

And rural mirth and manners are no more. 

Sweet Auburn, parent of the blissful hour! 75 

Thy glades forlorn confess the tyrant’s power. 

Here as I take my solitary rounds 

Amidst thy tangling walks and ruin’d grounds, 


Notes.— 58. maintain’d, sup¬ 
ported. 

65. lawn, plain. 

76. confess, show. 


76. the tyrant’s power. This 
also refers to the oppres¬ 
sion of the extensive land¬ 
holders. 


Analysis. —57. Dispose of there and ere. 

59. light Labor , etc. What figure ? 

60. Just gave , etc. Should this not be gave just , etc. ? 

61. 62. Supply the ellipsis. 

63. are alter’d. Give present form. 

63, 64. What figure in these lines ? 

66. What figure in this line? 

67, 68. Dispose of want and pang. 

69. Plenty bade. What figure ? 

69-71. Give construction of hours , desires, sports. 

76. glades forlorn. Dispose of forlorn. 

77. What does Here modify ? 

Give the meaning of take my solitary rounds. 





OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 


135 


And, many a year elapsed, return to view 
Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew, 
Remembrance wakes with all her busy train, 

Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain. 

In all my wanderings round this world of care, 

In all my griefs—and God has given my share— 

I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown, 

Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down; 

To husband out life’s taper at the close, 

And keep the flame from wasting by repose; 

I still had hopes, for pride attends us still, 

Amidst the swains to show my book-learn’d skill, 

Around my fire an evening group to draw, 

And tell of all I felt, and all I saw ; 

And, as a hare whom hounds and horns pursue, 

Pants to the place from whence at first he flew, 

I still had hopes, my long vexations past, 

Here to return,—and die at home at last. 

O blest retirement, friend to life’s decline, 

Retreats from care, that never must be mine! 

How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these, 

A youth of labor with an age of ease; 

Who quits a world where strong temptations try, 

And, since ’tis hard to commit, learns to fly! 

For him no wretches, born to work and weep, 

Explore the mine or tempt the dangerous deep; 

Analysis. —79. Dispose of elapsed. 

81. Remembrance .... train. Explain the line and give the figure. 
87. To husband out life's taper. What figure? 

90. Transpose this line. 

92. Dispose of tell. 

93, 94. Criticise these lines according to modern usage. 

95, 96. These two lines seem to express what has before been ex¬ 
pressed in lines 83-88. 

97. 0 blest retirement. What figure ? 

98. must. Would the word can express the meaning here? 

99. who a'owns, etc. What figures ? 

101, 102. Explain these lines. 

103. To what does him refer ? 


80 

85 

90 

95 

100 



136 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Nor surly porter stands in guilty state, 105 

To spurn imploring famine from the gate: 

But on he moves to meet his latter end, 

Angels around befriending Virtue’s friend; 

Sinks to the grave with unperceived decay. 

While resignation gently slopes the way; 110 

And, all his prospects brightening to the last, 

His Heaven commences ere the world be past. 

Sweet was the sound, when oft, at evening’s close, 

Up yonder hill the village murmur rose; 

There, as I pass’d with careless steps and slow, 115 

The mingling notes came soften’d from below: 

The swain responsive as the milkmaid sung, 

The sober herd that low’d to meet their young. 

The noisy geese that gabbled o’er the pool, 

The playful children just let loose from school, 120 

The watch-dog’s voice that bay’d the whispering wind, 

And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind,— 

These all in sweet confusion sought the shade, 

And fill’d each pause the nightingale had made. 

But now the sounds of population fail ; 125 

No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale; 


Notes.—121. bay’d, barked at. 

122. that spoke, etc., that in-' 

dicated, etc. 

123. sweet confusion_shade; 

that is, were all heard in 


confusion as night ap- 
■1 ^ proached. 

124. each pause, etc., each in¬ 
termission in the night¬ 
ingale’s song. 


Analysis.—104. Give the meaning of the line. 

106. imploring famine. What figure? Explain the line. 

107. What does the line mean? 

110. resignation .... slopes. What figure? 

112. Dispose of ere, and explain the line. 

113, 114. Rewrite the lines in prose order. 

115. What is the meaning of careless as used here? 

116. Dispose of below. 

118. sober herd. What figure? 

125. sounds of population fail. Explain. 

126. fluctuate in the gale. What is the meaning ? 





OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 


137 


No busy steps the grass-grown footway tread; 

For all the blooming flush of life is fled,— 

All but yon widow’d, solitary thing 
That feebly bends beside the plashy spring: 

She, wretched matron; forced in age, for bread, 

To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread, 

To pick her wintry fagot from the thorn, 

To seek her nightly shed, and weep till morn,— 

She only left of all/the harmless train, 

The sad historian of the pensive plain! 

Near yonder copse, where once the garden smiled, 
And still where many a garden-flower grows wild,— 
There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose, 

The village preacher’s modest mansion rose. 

A man he was to all the country dear, 

And passing rich with forty pounds a year. 

Remote from towns he ran his godly race, 

Nor e’er had changed, nor wished to change, his place: 
Unpracticed he to fawn, or seek for power. . 

By doctrines fashion’d to the varying hour ; 


Notes. —137. copse, woods of 142. passing, moderately, 
small growth; brush. 147. far other, far higher. 


Analysis. —128. Give the meaning of blooming . ... is fled. 
Modernize. What figure in the line? 

129. Dispose of but. 

131. for bread. Show what it modifies. 

134. For what is the word morn a substitute? What figure of 
orthography ? 

131-135. Dispose of the word she in each line. 

136. Dispose of the word historian. 

137. What figure in the line? 

140. mansion. What does the word mean here? 

142. Parse the word passing. 

143. he ran his godly race. What figure ? 

144. Explain the line. 

145. Give the meaning of fawn here. 

146. fashion’d to. Explain. 


130 

135 

140 

145 





138 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Far other aims his heart had learq’d to prize,— 

More bent to raise the wretched than to rise. 

His house was known to all the vagrant train: 

He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain. 

The long-remember’d beggar was his guest, 

Whose beard, descending, swept his aged breast; ' 

The ruin’d spendthrift, now no longer proud, 

Claimed kindred there, and had his claims allow’d; 
The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay, 

Sat by his fire, and talk’d the night away, 

Wept o’er his wounds, or, tales of sorrow done, 
Shoulder’d his crutch and show’d how fields were won. 
Pleased with his guests, the good man learn’d to glow, 
And quite forgot their vices in their woe: 

Careless their merits or their faults to scan, 

His pity gave ere charity began. 

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride; 

And e’en his failings lean’d to virtue’s side. 

But in his duty, prompt at every call, 

He watch’d and wept, he pray’d and felt, for all; 

And, as a bird each fond endearment tries 
To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, 

He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 

Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way. 

Beside the bed where parting life was laid, 

And sorrow, guilt, and pain, by turns dismay’d, 


Notes.— 149. vagrant train, trav- 159. learn’d to glow, became 
eling vagrants, tramps. animated. 


Analysis. —148. What does the line modify ? 
155. Meaning of broken soldier? 

158. shovfd how fields were won. What figure ? 

162. Dispose of the word ere. 

163. What is the predicate of this sentence ? 

164. Dispose of the word e’en. 

167. as a bird, etc. What figure ? 

167-170. Analyze this sentence. 


150 

155 

160 

165 

170 





OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 


The reverend champion stood. At his control, 
Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul ; 

Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise, 
And his last faltering accents whisper’d praise. 

At church, with meek and unaffected grace, 

His looks adorn’d the venerable place; 

Truth from his lips prevail’d with double sway, 

And fools, who came to scoff, remain’d to pray. 

The service past, around the pious man, 

With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran ; 

E’en children follow’d with endearing wile, 

And pluck’d his gown, to share the good man’s smile. 
His ready smile a parent’s warmth express’d, 

Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distress’d; 
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, 

But all his serious thoughts had rest in Heaven. 

As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 

Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head. 

Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way, 
With blossom’d furze unprofitably gay, 

There, in his noisy mansion, skill’d to rule, 

The village master taught his little school: 

A man severe he was, and stern to view, 

I knew him well, and every truant knew; 

Well had the boding tremblers learn’d to trace 
The day’s disasters in his morning face; 

Eull well they laugh’d with counterfeited glee 
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he; 

Analysis. —173. reverend champion stood. What figure? 

174. Despair and anguish fled. What figure? 

175. What figure in the line? 

176. accents whisper*d. What figure? 

183. The meaning of wile? 

189. as some tall cliff, etc. What figures? 

194. What is the meaning of furze? 

199, 200. Explain the line. What figure? 

201. Dispose of the expression of full well. 



140 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Full well the busy whisper circling round 
Convey’d the dismal tidings when he frown’d: 

Yet he was'kind, or, if severe in aught, 

The love he bore to learning was in fault; 

The village all declared how much he knew, 

’Twas certain he could write, and cipher too ; 

Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage, 

And e’en the story ran that he could gauge: 

In arguing, too, the parson own’d his skill, 

For, e’en though vanquish’d, he could argue still; 

While words of learned length and thundering sound 
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around, 

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, 

That one small head could carry all he knew. 

But past is all his fame. The very spot 
Where many a time he triumph’d is forgot. 

Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high, 

Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye, 

Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired, 
Where gray-beard mirth and smiling toil retired ; 

Where village statesmen talk’d with looks profound, 
And news much older than their ale went round. 
Imagination fondly stoops to trace 
The parlor-splendors of that festive place,— 

The whitewash’d wall; the nicely-sanded floor; 

The varnish’d clock that click’d behind the door; 

The chest, contrived a double debt to pay,— 

A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day; 


Notes. —219. thorn, hawthorn I 221. nut - brown draughts, 
tree. | draughts of ale. 


Analysis— 207. What is the object of declaredt 

208. Analyze the line. 

209. Meaning of 'presage ? Also of terms and tides ? 

210. 212. Dispose of the word den. 

215. wonder grew , etc. What figure? 

217. Give the grammatical construction of But. 


205 

210 

215 

220 

225 

230 




OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 


141 


The pictures placed for ornament and use; 

The twelve good rules; the royal game of goose; 

The hearth, except when winter chill’d the day, 

With aspen-boughs and flowers and fennel gay; 

While broken tea-cups, wisely kept for show, 235 

Ranged o’er the chimney, glisten’d in a row. 

II. 

Vain, transitory splendors! could not all 
Reprieve the tottering mansion from its fall ? 

Obscure it sinks; nor shall it more impart 
An hour’s importance to the poor man’s heart: 240 

Thither no more the peasant shall repair 
To sweet oblivion of his daily care; 

No more the farmer’s news, the barber’s tale, 

No more the woodman’s ballad, shall prevail; 

No more the smith his dusky brow shall clear, 245 

Relax his ponderous strength, and lean to hear; 

The host himself no longer shall be found 
Careful to see the mantling bliss go round; 

Nor the coy maid, half willing to be press’d, 

Shall kiss the cup to pass it to the rest. 250 

Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain, 

These simple blessings of the lowly train: 

To me more dear, congenial to my heart, 

One native charm, than all the gloss of art. 

Spontaneous joys where Nature has its play, 255 

The soul adopts, and owns their first-born sway ; 


Notes. —232. The twelve good 
rules were— 

1. Urge no healths (health- 

drinkings). 

2. Profane no divine ordi¬ 

nances. 

3. Touch no state matters. 

4. Reveal no secrets. 

5. Pick no quarrels. 


6. Make no comparisons. 

7. Maintain no ill opinions. 

8. Keep no bad company. 

. 9. Encourage no vice. 

10. Make no long meals. 

11. Repeat no grievances. 

12. Lay no wagers. 

236. o’er the chimney, over the 
fireplace. 


t 




142 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Lightly they frolic o’er the vacant mind, 

Unenvied, unmolested, unconfined: 

But the long pomp, the midnight masquerade, 

With all the freaks of wanton wealth array’d,— 

In these, ere triflers half their wish obtain, 

The toiling pleasure sickens into pain ; 

And, e’en while Fashion’s brightest arts decoy, 

The heart distrusting asks if this be joy. 

Ye friends to truth, ye statesmen who survey 
The rich man’s joys increase, the poor’s decay! 

’Tis yours to judge how wide the limits stand 
Between a splendid and a happy land. 

Proud swells the tide with loads of freighted ore, 

And shouting Folly hails them from her shore; 

Hoards e’en beyond the miser’s wish abound ; 

And rich men flock from all the world around. 

Yet count our gains. This wealth is but a name 
That leaves our useful products still the same. 

Not so the loss. The man of wealth and pride 
Takes up a space that many poor supplied: 

Space for his lake, his park’s extended bounds, 

Space for his horses, equipage, and hounds: 

The robe that wraps his limbs in silken sloth 

Has robb’d the neighboring fields of half their growth; 

His seat, where solitary sports are seen, 

Indignant spurns the cottage from the green : 

Around the world each needful product flies, 

For all the luxuries the world supplies. 

While thus the land adorn’d for . pleasure, all 
In barren splendor feebly waits the fall. 

As some fair female unadorn’d and plain, 

Secure to please while youth confirms her reign, 

Slights every borrow’d charm that dress supplies, 

Nor shares with art the triumph of her eyes; 

But when those charms are past, for charms are frail, 
When time advances, and when lovers fail, 

She then shines forth, solicitous to bless, 

In all the glaring impotence of dress. 


260 

265 

270 

275 

280 

285 

290 


OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 


143 


Thus fares the land by luxury betray’d; 

In nature’s simplest charms at first array’d, 

But verging to decline, its splendors rise, 

Its vistas strike, its palaces surprise; 

While, scourged by famine- from ther smiling land, 

The mournful peasant leads his humble band; 

And while he sinks, without one arm to save, 

The country blooms,—a garden and a grave. 

Where, then, ah! where shall poverty reside, 

To ’scape the pressure of contiguous pride ? 

If to some common’s fenceless limits stray’d 
He drives his flock to pick the scanty blade, 

Those fenceless fields the sons of wealth divide, 

And e’en the bgre-worn common is denied. 

If to the city sped, what waits him there ? 

To see profusion that he must not share; 

To see ten thousand baneful arts combined 
To pamper luxury and thin mankind; 

To see each joy the sons of Pleasure know 
Extorted from his fellow-creatures’ woe. 

Here while the courtier glitters in brocade, 

There the pale artist plies the sickly trade; 

Here while the proud their long-drawn pomps display, 
There the black gibbet glooms beside the way; 

The dome where Pleasure holds her midnight reign, 
Here, richly deck’d, admits the gorgeous train; 
Tumultuous grandeur crowds the blazing square, 

The rattling chariots clash, the torches glare. 

Sure scenes like these no troubles e’er annoy; 

Sure these denote one universal joy ! 

Are these thy serious thoughts ? Ah ! turn thine eyes 
Where the poor, houseless, shivering female lies. 

She once, perhaps, in village plenty bless’d, 

Has wept at tales of iunocence distress’d: 

Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, 

Sweet a3 the primrose peeps beneath the thorn ; 


295 

300 

305 

310 

315 

320 

325 

330 


Notes.— 304. ’scape, escape. 


i 31G. artist, artisan. 



144 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE . 

Now lost to all, her friends, her virtue, fled, 

Near her betrayer’s door she lays her head, 

And pinch’d with cold, and shrinking from the shower, 
With heavy heart deplores that luckless hour 
When idly first, ambitious of the town, 

She left her wheel, and robes of country brown. 

Do thine, sweet Auburn! thine, the loveliest train,— 
Do thy fair tribes participate her pain ? 

E’en now, perhaps, by cold and hunger led, 

At proud men’s doors they ask a little bread. 

Ah, no! to distant climes, a dreary scene, 

Where half the convex world intrudes between, 

Through torrid tracks with fainting steps they go, 

Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe. 

Far different there from all that charm’d before, 

The various terrors of that horrid shore,— 

Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray, 

And fiercely shed intolerable day; 

Those matted woods where birds forget to sing, 

But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling ; 

Those poisonous fields with rank luxuriance crown’d, 
Where the dark scorpion gathers death around; 

Where at each step the stranger fears to wake 
The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake; 

Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey, 

And savage men more murderous still than they ; 

While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies, 

Mingling the ravaged landscape with the skies. 

Far different these from every former scene,— 

The cooling brook, the grassy-vested green, 

The breezy covert of the warbling grove, 

That only shelter’d thefts of harmless love. 

Good Heaven ! what sorrows gloom’d that parting day 
That call’d them from their native walks away; 

When the poor exiles, every pleasure past, 

Hung round the bowers, and fondly look’d their last, 


335 

340 

345 

350 

355 

360 

365 


Note. —344. Altama, the Alta- 
maha Kiver in Georgia, one 


of the boundaries of Ogle¬ 
thorpe’s grant of land. 




OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 145 

«* 

And took a long farewell, and wish’d in vain 
For seats like these beyond the western main; 

And, shuddering still to face the distant deep, 

Return’d and wept, and still return’d to weep. 

The good old sire was first prepared to go 
To new-found worlds, and wept for others’ woe; 

But, for himself, in conscious virtue brave, 

He only wish’d for worlds beyond the grave. 

His lovely daughter, lovelier in her tears, 

The fond companion of his helpless years, 

Silent went next, neglectful of her charms, 

And left a lover’s for her father’s arms. 

With louder plaints the mother spoke her woes, 

And bless’d the cot where every pleasure rose; 

And kiss’d her thoughtless babes with many a tear, 

And clasp’d them close, in sorrow doubly dear; 

Whilst her fond husband strove to lend relief 
In all the silent manliness of grief. 

O luxury! thou curst by Heaven’s decree, 

How ill exchanged are things like these for thee! 

How do thy potions, with insidious joy, 

Diffuse their pleasures only to destroy! 

Kingdoms by thee, to sickly greatness grown, 

Boast of a florid vigor not their own. 

At every draught more large and large they grow, 

A bloated mass, of rank unwieldy woe; 

Till, sapp’d their strength, and every part unsound, 

Down, down they sink, and spread a ruin round. 

E’en now the devastation is begun, 

And half the business of destruction done; 

E’en now, methinks, as pondering here I stand, 

I see the rural virtues leave the land. 

Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail, 

That idly waiting flaps with every gale, 

Downward they move, a melancholy band, 

Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand. 


Notes. —368. seats, sites, loca- I 368. main, sea. 

tions. I 402. strand, beach. 

10 


370 

375 

380 

385 

390 

395 

400 



146 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Contented toil, and hospitable care, 

And kind connubial tenderness, are there; 

And piety with wishes placed above, 405 

And steady loyalty, and faithful love. 

And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid, 

Still first to fly where sensual joys invade; 

Unfit in these degenerate times of shame 

To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame; 410 

Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried, 

My shame in crowds, my solitary pride; 

Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe, 

Thou found’st me poor at first, and keep’st me so; 

Thou guide, by which the noble arts excel; 415 

Thou nurse of every virtue,—fare thee well! 

Farewell! and, oh! where’er thy voice be tried, 

On Torno’s cliffs, or Pambamarca’s side, 

Whether where equinoctial fervors glow, 

Or Winter wraps the polar world in snow, 420 

Still let thy voice, prevailing over time, 

Redress the rigors of the inclement clime ; 

Aid slighted Truth with thy persuasive strain; 

Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain ; 

Teach him that states of native strength possess’d, 425 

Though very poor, may still be very bless’d ; 

That Trade’s proud empire hastes to swift decay, 

As Ocean sweeps the labor’d mole away; 

While self-dependent power can Time defy, 430 

As rocks resist the billows and the sky. 


Notes. —418. Torno’s cliffs. This 
probably refers to the cliffs 
around Lake Torno in Swe¬ 
den. 


418. Pambamarca’s side. Pam- 
bamarca is a mountain 
near Quito, South Amer¬ 
ica. 




12*. WILLIAM COWPER, 

1731 - 1800 . 

William Cowper, whom Southey speaks of as the 
“ most popular poet of his generation, and the best of 
English letter-writers,” was the son of the Rev. Dr. 
John Cowper, chaplain to George II., and grandson of 
Judge Spencer Cowper. His mother also was allied to 
some of the noblest families in England, and descended 
by four different lines from King Henry III. Dr. Cow¬ 
per at the time of William’s birth—which took place 
on the 15th of November, 1731—was also rector of Great 
Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire. 

Cowper’s mother died when he was but six years of 
age, and he was soon thereafter taken to a boarding- 
school, where he was not only homesick and lonely, 
but compelled to suffer from the tyranny of one of 
his schoolfellows much older than himself, who cruelly 
crushed his spirit with rough blows and continual per¬ 
secution. It was here that the foundation was laid for 
that morbid sensitiveness and dislike for schools of all 
kinds which characterized him through life. At the age 
of eight he was taken from school, and placed for two 
years in the care of an oculist for treatment of his eyes. 
At the age of ten he was placed in Westminster School, 
where he remained seven years. 

He was placed in an attorney’s office at eighteen, and 
here for three years he and a fellow-student, who after¬ 
ward became Lord Chancellor Thurlow, enjoyed them¬ 
selves in pretending to study English law. This ex¬ 
perience was one of the few bright spots in the poet’s 

147 


148 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


life. Cowper, who was called to the bar in 1754, lived 
for some time an agreeable but idle life, spending an 
hour now and then in writing a little for the serials of 
the day. 

In 1763 a clerkship in the House of Lords was offered 
to him, but his shrinking .nature forbade his accepting 
the post. Another position was substituted, that of clerk 
of the journals of the House of Lords. But he was re¬ 
quired to pass an examination for this position, and in 
the effort to prepare himself his mind gave way and he 
tried to kill himself. A deep religious melancholy took 
possession of him, and for a year and a half he remained 
ah inmate of an asylum at St. Albans. Three times sub¬ 
sequently his malady returned. 

In 1766 he became a member of Rev. Mr. Unwin’s 
family, residing at Huntingdon; and this proved to be 
the great blessing of his life. Cowper in one of his 
letters says of Mrs. Unwin, who became a widow in 
1767, “ Her behavior to me has always been that of a 
mother to her son.” In 1773, Cowper became insane the 
second time, and for more than three-years his terrible 
malady held possession of him. When he recovered he 
resorted to gardening, the rearing of hares, and the writ¬ 
ing of poetry as recreation. The last of these fortunately 
became a permanent enjoyment. His first published 
poems appeared in 1782. The Task, by which he is best 
known, was published in 1785, hut previous to this the 
comic ballad of John Gilpin, written for the amusement 
of a few friends, had made all England merry with its 
humor. 

From 1776 to 1794, Cowper’s mind was clear, except 
for a space of six months, and it was during these eight¬ 
een years that most of his poems were written. His 
verses On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture are among 
the most touching in the language. 


WILLIAM COWPER. 


149 


In 1791 he published a translation of Homer, but it 
was no improvement on the productions of his prede¬ 
cessors in this line. Toward the close of his unfortunate 
life his malady again settled on him, and he was gloomy 
and dejected almost constantly to the time of his death. 
In 1794 a pension of three hundred pounds was granted 
to him by the Crown. In 1796 his good friend Mrs. 
Unwin died. Cowper lingered almost four years longer, 
dying on the 25th of April, 1800. 

CRITICISM BY CAMPBELL. 

The nature of Cowper’s works makes us peculiarly 
identify the poet and the man in perusing them. As 
an individual he was retired and weaned from the van¬ 
ities of the world, and as an original writer he left the 
ambitious and luxuriant subjects of fiction for those 
of real life and simple Nature, and for the development 
of his own earnest feelings in behalf of moral and re¬ 
ligious truth. His language has such a masculine, 
idiomatic strength, and his manner, whether he rises 
into grace or falls into negligence, has so much plain 
and familiar freedom, that we read no poetry with a 
deeper conviction of its sentiments having come from 
the author’s heart, and of the enthusiasm, in whatever 
he describes, having been unfeigned and unexaggerated. 

ON THE RECEIPT OF MY MOTHER’S PICTURE. 

Note. —These tender lines were written by Cowper in 1790, ten 
years before his death, on the receipt of his mother’s picture, sent to 
him by his cousin, Ann Bodham. Though his mother had died 
fifty-three years before, he claimed to be an “ocular witness” to the 
fidelity of the picture. 

Oh that those lips had language! Life has passed 
With me but roughly since I heard thee last; 


Analysis.— 2. Dispose of the words but roughly. t 



150 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 

Those lips are thine—thine own sweet smile I see, 
The same that oft in childhood solaced me; 

Voice only fails, else how distinct they say, 

“ Grieve not, my child; chase all thy fears away 1” 
The meek intelligence of those dear eyes 
(Blest be the art that can immortalize ! 

The art that baffles Time’s tyrannic claim 
To quench it) here shines on me still the same. 
Faithful remembrancer of one so dear, 

O welcome guest, though unexpected here! 

Who bidd’st me honor with an artless song, 
Affectionate, a mother lost so long. 

I will obey—not willingly alone, 

But gladly, as the precept were her own ; 

And, while that face renews my filial grief, 

Fancy shall weave a charm for my relief, 

Shall steep me in Elysian revery, 

A momentary dream that thou art she. 

My mother! when I learned that thou wast dead, 
Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed ? 
Hovered thy spirit o’er thy sorrowing son, 

Wretch even then, life’s journey just begun? 
Perhaps thou gav’st me, though unfelt, a kiss; 


Analysis.—3. Give the case of thine. 

5. Why only , instead of a lone t Meaning of else ? 

Dispose of distinct. 

7. meek intelligence. What figure ? 

8. What art is meant ? 

9. Timefs tyrannic , etc. What figure ? 

12. welcome guest. What figure ? 

16. Give the construction of were. 

18. Fancy shall weave. What figure ? 

19. The meaning of Elysian revery ? 

21. My mother! What figure? Grammatical construction of 
mother ? 

22. Grammatical construction of Say ? 

24. Dispose of even , then, and begun. 

25. Give the grammatical construction of unjelt. 


5 

10 

15 

20 

25 



WILLIAM COW PER. 


151 


Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss: 

Ah, that maternal smile! it answers, Yes. 

I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day, 

I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away, 

And, turning from my nursery window, drew 
A long, long sigh and wept a last adieu! 

But was it such ? It was. Where thou art gone, 
Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown. 

May I but meet thee on that peaceful shore, 

The parting word shall pass my lips no more! 

Thy maidens, grieved themselves at my concern, 

Oft gave me promise of thy quick return: 

What ardently I wished I long believed, 

And, disappointed still, was still deceived; 

By expectation every day beguiled, 

Dupe of to-morrow, even from a child! 

Thus many a sad to-morrow came and went, 

Till, all my stock of infant sorrow spent, 

I learned, at last, submission to my lot, 

But, though I less deplored thee, ne’er forgot. 

Where once we dwelt, our name is heard no more. 
Children not thine have trod my nursery-floor; 

And where the gardener Robin day by day 
Drew me to school along the public way, 


Analysis. —26. Give the grammatical construction of tkar. What 
figure in the line ? 

29. Dispose of the word slow. Explain how the use of the word 
slow becomes allowable here. 

32. Dispose of the word such. What word should be used instead 
of where in prose form ? 

34. Grammatical construction of but ? 

35. shall pass my lips, etc. What figure ? 

39. disappointed. Give grammatical construction. 

40, 41. Arrange in prose order. Dispose of the word Dupe. 

42. sad to-morrow came. What figure ? 

43. Grammatical construction of spent ? 

45. Explain the use of the apostrophe in ne’er. What is the sub¬ 
ject of forgot f 


30 

35 

40 

45 



152 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Delighted with my bauble coach, and wrapped 
In scarlet mantle warm, and velvet-capped, 

’Tis now become a history little known, 

That once we called the pastoral house our own. 
Short-lived possession ! but the record fair 
That memory keeps of all thy kindness there 
Still outlives many a storm that has effaced 
A thousand other themes less deeply traced. 

Thy nightly visits to my chamber made, 

That thou mightst know me safe and warmly laid ; 
Thy morning bounties ere I left my home, 

The biscuit or confectionery plum. 

The fragrant waters on my cheeks bestowed, 

By thy own hand, till fresh they shone and glowed,— 
All this, and, more endearing still than all, 

Thy constant flow of love, that knew no fall, 

Ne’er roughened by those cataracts and breaks. 

That humor interposed too often makes; 

All this still legible in memory’s page. 

And still to be so to my latest age, 

Adds joy to duty, makes me glad to pay 
Such honors to thee as my numbers may; 


Analysis. —50. Trace the etymology of bauble. Show how the 
word is‘allied to babe. 

51. scarlet mantle warm. Notice the order of the words. 

52. ’Tis now become , etc. Write in prose form. 

52, 53. Analyze these lines. 

54-57. Give the^meaning of these lines. 

55. memory keeps. What figure ? Dispose of there. 

56, 57. Point out the figure. 

59. warmly. Is this grammatically correct ? 

64. All this. To what do the words refer ? 

65. flow of love. What figure ? 

66. 67. What figures in these lines ? Meaning of the word humor 
here ? 

68. legible in memory’s page. What figure ? 

69. Grammatical construction of so ? 

71. To what does numbers here refer ? 


50 

55 

60 

65 

70 



WILLIAM COW PER. 


153 


Perhaps a frail memorial, but sincere, 

Not scorned in heaven, though little noticed here. 

Could Time, his flight reversed, restore the hours 
When, playing with thy vesture’s tissued flowers, 75 

The violet, the pink, and jessamine; 

I pricked them into paper with a pin 

(And thou wast happier than myself the while; 

Wouldst softly speak, and stroke my head and smile),— 
Could those few pleasant days again appear, 80 

Might one wish bring them, would I wish them here ? 

I would not trust my heart—the dear delight 
Seems so to be desired, perhaps I might. 

But no! what here we call our life is such, 

So little to be loved, and thou so much, 85 

That I should ill requite thee to constrain 
Thy unbound spirit into bonds again. 

Thou, as a gallant bark from Albion’s coast 
(The storms all weathered and the ocean crossed) 

Shoots into port at some well-havened isle 90 

Where spices breathe, and brighter seasons smile, 


Notes. —75-81. It is related of 
Cowper that when a little 
child he often stood at his 
mother’s knee and played 
with the flowers in her dress, 
frequently pricking pictures 


of them into paper with a 
pin. 

88. Albion, England. Named 
Albion from the white chalk 
cliffs on its coast. (Latin, 
albus , white). 


Analysis. —72. Supply ellipsis, and dispose of the word memorial. 
What are the modifiers of memorial t 
74. What figure in the line ? 

7A-81. What is the principal clause in these lines? Write the 
lines in prose order. 

78. Grammatical construction of while ? 

83. Seems to be desired. Grammatical construction ? 

85. Dispose of So little to be loved ; also so much. 

86, 87. to constrain .... again. Explain. 

88. What figure in the line ? 

91. spices breathe .... seasons smile. What figures? 





154 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


95 


100 


105 


Note. —109, 110. These lines re-1 from distinguished ances- 

fer to Cowper’s descent | try. 


Analysis. —94. airs play around. What figure ? 

95. Parse light. 

96. sails how swift. What figure? 

97. Point out and name the figures in the line. 

98. 99. Name the figures. 

100. But me, “ but as for me.” Dispose of scarce. 

100, 101. Dispose of hoping and distressed. 

102. What part of speech is devious? 

103. wide is here used as an attributive adjective after the parti¬ 
ciple opening. (See Raub’s Grammar , p. 101, Remark 7.) 

103. compass lost. To what calamity in Cowper’s life does this 
refer ? 

104, 105. distant is here a factitive adjective. (See Raub’s Gram¬ 
mar, p. 164, note 4.) What figure in the line? 

106. and he. Supply ellipsis. 

107. arrive. What term is commonly used ? Give the mode of 
arrive. 

109. loins enthroned. What figure? 


There sits quiescent on the floods, that show 
Her beauteous form reflected clear below, 

While airs impregnated with incense play 
Around her, fanning light her streamers gay,— 

So thou, with sails how swift! hast reached the shore, 
“ Where tempests never beat, nor billows roar 
And thy loved consort on the dangerous tide 
Of life long since has anchored by thy side. 

But me, scarce hoping to attain that rest, 

Always from port withheld, always distressed— 

The howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, 

Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost, 
And day by day some current’s thwarting force 
Sets me more distant from a prosperous course. 

But oh! the thought that thou art safe, and he, 

That thought is joy, arrive what may to me. 

My boast is not that I deduce my birth 
From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth; 




WILLIAM COW PER. 


155 


110 


115 


120 


Analysis. —110. Dispose of far. 

113. Dispose of what. 

114. contemplation’s help. What figure? 

116. Give grammatical construction of mine. 

117. Give grammatical construction of thine. 

118. What figures in the line? 

119. mimic show. To what does this refer? 

120. What is the force of but? 

121. Give the grammatical construction of removed. 


But higher far my proud pretensions rise— 
The son of parents passed into the skies. 

And now, farewell! Time unrevoked has run 
His wonted course; yet what I wished is done. 
By contemplation’s help, not sought in vain, 

I seem to have lived my childhood o’er again; 
To have renewed the joys that once were mine, 
Without the sin of violating thine; 

And, while the wings of fancy still are free, 
And I can view this mimic show of thee, 

Time has but half succeeded in his theft— 
Thyself removed, thy power to soothe me left. 



13. ROBERT BURNS, 

1759-1796. 

Robert Burns, often called the Shakespeare of Scot¬ 
land, was born in the parish of Alloway, near Ayr, 
Scotland, on the 25th of January, 1759. His father 
was a poor farmer, who had built with his own hands 
the mud hut in which the great poet was born, and was 
therefore able to give his son but a meagre education. 
The school-days of Burns had ended before he reached 
the age of twelve, but he claims that even then he was 
“ a critic in substantives, verbs, and participles.” To this 
education was added “ a fortnight’s French ” and a sum¬ 
mer quarter at land-surveying, and the school-career of 
Burns was closed. 

His help was needed on the little nursery-farm to 
which his father had removed, and here, it is said, he 
toiled like a galley-slave to support his parents and 
their household, yet improving every opportunity of 
acquiring knowledge from both men and books. Among 
the few books he possessed were the works of Addison, 
Pope, and Allan Ramsay, and these he read and re-read 
till by and by he was able to add Shenstone, Sterne, 
Thomson, and Mackenzie to his list of silent com¬ 
panions. 

Nature, however, became his great school. From the 
birds and the wild flowers he conned his best lessons as 
he trudged behind the plow. A little mat of leaves and 
grass, tossed aside by his plowshare, exposed a small 
field-mouse, over which the saddened heart of the poet 
bubbled into song, and a daisy crushed in the spring- 
156 


ROBERT BURNS. 


157 


time draws from him another strain no less beautiful 
and touching than the other. 

But the farm could not be made to produce a living, 
and the poet- determined to sail to Jamaica, with the 
hope of becoming steward on some sugar-plantation. 
In order to secure the needed funds, he had six hun¬ 
dred copies of his poems printed at Kilmarnock in 1786. 
These were distributed among a few booksellers, and so 
ready was the sale that the poet found himself the pos¬ 
sessor of twenty guineas as his share of the profit. His 
passage was engaged for the first ship that left the Clyde, 
and every preparation was made for the start, when a 
letter from Dr. Blacklock of Edinburgh, himself a poet, 
to one of Burns’s friends, commending the poems in 
such terms as the modest plowboy had not dared to 
hope for, changed the whole current of his life. 

Giving his mother a portion of his twenty guineas, he 
started, almost penniless, to Edinburgh, without even a 
letter of introduction. But his book had preceded him, 
and he at once became the companion of both lords and 
literati, who listened with delight to his fresh and bril¬ 
liant talk. A new edition of his poems was at once 
issued, on which he cleared nearly five hundred pounds. 
Burns joined in the conviviality which everywhere sur¬ 
rounded him, but, alas! the temptations which beckoned 
him on became his ruin. He soon fell a victim to in¬ 
temperance, his money was spent, and he found himself 
deserted. . His poverty compelled him to rent a little 
farm at Ellisland, near Dumfries, and, having married 
Jean Armour, to whom he had long been attached, he 
again became a farmer. 

In 1793 a third edition of his poems was printed, in 
which first appeared his inimitable Tam O’Shanter. But 
Burns’s life was almost spent; sickness, poverty, and 
debt made him despondent, and he at last became the 


158 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


fated victim of intemperate habits, to which he was only 
too prone, and died at the age of thirty-seven, at Dum¬ 
fries, on the 21st of July, 1796. 

Burns is remembered chiefly by his songs , but in ad¬ 
dition to the poems already mentioned he will always 
be praised for his Cotter's Saturday Night —a beautiful 
domestic picture, supposed to represent a home-scene 
at his father’s cottage—the Elegy on Captain Matthew 
Henderson , and The Jolly Beggars. Among his master¬ 
pieces are The Cotter's Saturday Night and Tam O'Shanter. 


CRITICISM BY THOMAS B. SHAW. 

His works are singularly various and splendid; the 
greater part of them consists of songs, either completely 
original or recastings of such compositions of older 
date: in performing this difficult task of altering and 
improving existing lyrics, in which a beautiful thought 
was often buried under a load of mean and vulgar ex¬ 
pression, Burns exhibits a most exquisite delicacy and 
purity of taste, and an admirable ear for harmony. His 
own songs vary in tone and subject through every chang¬ 
ing mood, from the sternest patriotism and the most 
agonizing pathos to the broadest drollery: in all he is 
equally inimitable. Most of his finest works are writ¬ 
ten in his own Lowland dialect, and give a picture, at 
once familiar and ideal, of the feelings and sentiments 
of the peasant. It is the rustic heart, but glorified by 
passion, and elevated by a perpetual communing with 
Nature. But he has also exhibited perfect mastery when 
writing pure English, and many admirable productions 
might be cited in which he has clothed the loveliest 
thoughts in the purest language. Consequently, his 
genius was not obliged to depend upon the adventi¬ 
tious charm and prestige of a provincial dialect. There 


ROBERT BURNS. 


159 


never perhaps existed a mind more truly and intensely 
poetical than that of Burns. In his verses to a “ Moun¬ 
tain Daisy,” which he turned up with his plow, in his 
reflections on destroying, in the same way, the nest of a 
field-mouse, there is a vein of tenderness which no poet 
has ever surpassed. In the beautiful little poem “ To 
Mary in Heaven,” and in many other short lyrics, he 
has condensed the whole history of love—its tender 
fears, its joys, its frenzy, its agonies, and its yet sub- 
limer resignation—into the space of a dozen lines. No 
poet ever seems so sure of himself; none goes more 
directly and more certainly to the point; none is more 
muscular in his expression, encumbering the thought 
with no useless drapery of words, and trusting always 
for effect to Nature, truth, and intensity of feeling. Con¬ 
sequently, no poet more abounds in those short and pic¬ 
ture-like phrases which at once present the object almost 
to our senses, and which no reflection could either imi¬ 
tate or improve. 

THE COTTER’S SATURDAY NIGHT. 

Note. —This poem was written by Burns at the age of twenty-six. 
It was dedicated to his intimate friend Robert Aiken, a lawyer in 
the town of Ayr, Scotland. It will be noticed that part of the poem 
is written in the Ayrshire dialect and part in English. The poet 
employs the Spenserian stanza. 

1. My loved, my honor’d, much-respected friend! 

No mercenary bard his homage.pays; 

With honest pride I scorn each selfish end: 

My dearest meed, a friend’s esteem and praise: 


Note.— 4. meed, reward. 


Analysis.—2. What is the meaning of mercenary bard here ? 
4. What verb is omitted in the line ? 




160 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


To you I sing, in simple Scottish lays, 5 

The lowly train in life’s sequester’d scene; 

The native feelings strong, the guileless ways; 

What Aiken in a cottage would have been; 

Ah! though his worth unknown, far happier there, I ween. 

2. November chill blaws loud wi’ angry sugh; 10 

The shortening winter day is near a close; 

The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh; 

The blackening trains o’ craws to their repose; 

The toil-worn Cotter frae his labor goes, 

This night his weekly moil is at an end, 15 

Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes, 

Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend, 

And, weary, o’er the moor his course does hameward bend. 

3. At length his lonely cot appears in view, 

Beneath the shelter of an aged tree; 20 

Th’ expectant wee-things, toddlin’, stacher through 
To meet their Dad, wi’ flichterin’ noise an’ glee. 


Notes.— 5. I sing. This refers to 
the habit of early poets, who 
sang their verses, usually for 
pay. 

9. ween, deem. 

10. wi’ angry sugh, with angry 
sough or moaning. 

12. frae, from. 


12. pleugh, plow. 

13. trains o’ craws, trains of 

crows. / 

15. moil, labor. 

17. the morn, the morrow. 

19. cot, cottage. 

21. stacher, stagger. 

22. flichterin’, fluttering. 


Analysis.—6. Meaning of lowly traint Give the grammatical 
construction of train. 

7. native feelings strong. Notice the order. 

9. Rewrite the line in prose. 

10. What part of speech is loud ? 

13. Supply ellipsis. 

14. Give the meaning of Cotter. 

16. What is the subject of collects ? 

17. What does the line modify ? 

18. Give the construction of weary. 

21. toddlin’. Give the meaning. 





ROBERT BURNS. 


161 


His wee bit ingle, blinkin’ bonnily, 

His clean hearth-stane, his thriftie wifie’s smile, 

The lisping infant prattling on his knee, 

Does a’ his weary carking cares beguile, 

An’ makes him quite forget his labor an’ his toil. 

4. Belyve the elder bairns come drappin’ in, 

At service out amang the farmers roun’: 

Some ca’ the pleugh, some herd, some tentie rin 30 

A cannie errand to a neebor-town. 

Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman grown, 

In youthfu’ bloom, love sparkling in her e’e, 

Comes hame, perhaps, to show a braw new gown, 

Or deposit her sair-won penny-fee 35 

To help her parents dear if they in hardship be. 

5. Wi’ joy unfeign’d brothers and sisters meet, 

An’ each for other’s weelfare kindly speirs: 

The social hours, swift-wing’d, unnoticed fleet; 

Each tells the uncos that he sees or hears. 40 

The parents, partial, eye their hopeful years; 

Anticipation forward points the view: 

The mother, wi’ her needle an’ her shears, 



31. cannie, careful or dexterous. 

33. e’e, eye. 

34. braw, handsome. 

35. sair-won, sorely or dearly 

won. 

penny-fee, wages. 

38. speirs, inquires. 

40. uncos, news. 


Analysis. —23-27. Is the sentence correct ? Analyze it. 

29. What does the line modify ? 

35. de'posit. The accent here is thrown to the first syllable to re¬ 
tain the metre. This was also the former pronunciation of the word. 

41. Parse partial, eye their hopeful years. What figure? 

42. Anticipation .... points, etc. What figure ? 

11 


Notes.—23. ingle, fireplace. 

blinkin’, shining at intervals. 
26. a’, all. 

carking, consuming. 

28. Belyve, by and by. 

bairns, children. 

30. ca’, call or drive. 

tentie rin, attentively run. 





162 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Gars auld claes look amaist as weel’s the new; 
The father mixes a’ wi’ admonition due. 


45 


6. Their master’s and their mistress’s command 
The younkers a’ are warned to obey; 

An’ mind their labors wi’ an eydent hand; 

An’ ne’er, though out o’ sight, to jauk or play: 

‘‘An’, oh ! be sure to fear the Lord alway, 50 

An’ mind your duty duly, morn ail’ night. 

Lest in temptation’s path ye gang astray, 

Implore His counsel and assisting might: 

They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright.” 

7. But, hark; a rap comes gently to the door: 55 

Jenny, wha kens the meaning o’ the same, 

Tells how a neebor-lad cam’ o’er the moor 
To do some errands, and convoy her hame. 

The wily mother sees the conscious flame 

Sparkle in Jenny’s e’e and flush her cheek; 60 

With heart-struck anxious care inquires his name; 

While Jenny hafflins is afraid to speak: 

Weel pleased, the mother hears it’s nae wild, worthless rake. 


Notes. —44. Gars auld claes, 
makes old clothes. 

47. younkers, youngsters. 

48. eydent, diligent. 

49. jauk, trifle. 


56. wha, who. 

58. convoy, accompany. 

59. wily, cautious. 

62. hafflins, partly. 

63. nae, no. 


Analysis. —44. as weeVs the new. Explain. 

47. warned. Notice the pronunciation. 

50. Why alway instead of always? 

51. duty. What duty morn and night? 

50-54. Notice that these lines are a direct quotation. 
55. Dispose of the word hark. 

57. Wliat is the object of tells ? 

59. conscious flame. What figure ? 

60. Grammatical construction of Sparkle ? 





ROBERT BURNS. 


163 


8. Wi’ kindly welcome, Jenny brings him ben ; 

A strappan youth, he taks the mother’s eye: 65 

Blythft Jenny sees the visit’s no ill ta’en; 

The father cracks of horses, pleughs, and kye. 

The youngster’s artless heart o’erflows wi’ joy, 

But, blate and laithfu’, scarce can weel behave: 

The mother, wi’ a woman’s wiles, can spy 70 

What makes the youth sae bashfu’ an’ sae grave; 

Weel pleased to think her bairn’s respected like the lave. 

9. Oh happy love, where love like this is found! 

Oh heartfelt raptures! bliss beyond, compare! 

I’ve paced much this weary mortal round, 75 

And sage experience bids me this declare,— 

“ If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare, 

One cordial in this melancholy vale, 

’Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair, 

In other’s arms breathe out the tender tale 80 

Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale.” 


Notes. —64. ben; that is, in or 
into the room. 

65. strappan, tall and hand¬ 
some. 

taks, takes. 


67. cracks, talks. 

kye, kine or cows. 
69. blate, bashful. 

laithfu', reluctant. 
72. the lave, the others. 


Analysis. —65. taks the mother’s eye. What figure ? Why is the 
word written eye in this line and e’e in line 60 ? 

66. Write the line in prose. 

68. Who is meant by youngster in this line ? 

69. Grammatical construction of blate, laithfu ’, and behave? Trace 
the etymology of blate. 

70. Name the object of can spy. 

72. What does the line modify ? 

73. What figure in the line ? 

74. compare. This is a figure of Enallage. For what is the word 
a substitute ? 

76. experience bids, etc. What figure ? What is the object of 
declare ? 

78. Name the figures in this line. 

80. Supply the ellipsis in the line. 





164 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


10. Is there, in human form, that bears a heart,— 

A wretch! a villain! lost to love and truth! 

That can, with studied, sly, ensnaring art, 

Betray sweet Jenny’s unsuspecting youth ? . 85 

Curse on his perjured arts! dissembling smooth ! 

Are honor, virtue, conscience, all exiled ? 

Is there no pity, no relenting ruth. 

Points to the parents fondling o’er their child ? 

Then paints the ruin’d maid, and their distraction wild ? 90 

11. But now the supper crowns their simple board, 

The halesome parritch, chief o’ Scotia’s food: 

The soupe their only hawkie does alford, 

- That ’yont the hallan snugly chows her cood: 

The dame brings forth in complimental mood, 95 

To grace the lad, her weel-hain’d kebbuck fell, 

An’ aft he’s prest, an’ aft he ca’s it guid : 

The frugal wifie, garrulous, will tell, 

How ’twas a towmond auld, sin’ lint w T as i’ the bell. 

12. The cheerfu’ supper done, wi’ serious face, 100 

They round the ingle form a circle wide; 


Notes.—88. ruth, mercy or pity. 

92. parritch, porridge. 

93. soupe, milk. 

hawkie, a pet name for a 
cow. 

94. ’yont, beyond. 

hallan, a partition-wall in a 
cottage. 


96. weel-hain’d, carefully pre¬ 
served. 

kebbuck, cheese, 
fell, tasteful. 

99. towmond, twelvemonth, 
auld, old. 

sin’ lint was i’ the bell, since 
flax was in the blossom. 


Analysis. —87. With what is all in apposition ? 

89, 90. What is the subject of Points and paints t 
92. Scotia’s food. What figure ? -. 

95. Meaning of complimental? 

98. will tell. The future tense is used here for the present by 
poetic license. 

101. cheerfu ’ supper. What figure? 





ROBERT BURNS. 


165 


The sire turns o’er, wi’ patriarchal grace, 

The big ha’ Bible, ance his father’s pride: 

His bonnet reverently is laid aside, 

His lyart haffets wearing thin an’ bare; 105 

Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, 

He wales a portion with judicious care; 

And “ Let us worship God 1” he says, with solemn air. 

13. They chant their artless notes in simple guise; 

They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim: 110 

Perhaps Dundee’s wild, warbling measures rise; 

Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name; 

Or noble Elgin beats the heavenward flame,— 

The sweetest far of Scotia’s holy lays: 

Compared with these, Italian trills are tame; 115 

The tickled ear no heartfelt raptures raise; 

Nae unison hae they with our Creator’s praise. 

14. The priest-like father reads the ^acred page,— 

How Abram was the friend of God on high ; 

Or Moses bade eternal warfare wage 120 

With Amalek’s ungracious progeny ; 

' > 


Notes. —103. ha’ Bible, the Bi¬ 
ble kept in the hall. 

105. lyart, grayish. 

haffets, temples, or sides of 
the head. 


106. Zion, a psalm-tune. 

107. wales, chooses. 

111-113. Dundee, Martyrs, El¬ 
gin ; these also are Scot¬ 
tish psalm-tunes. 


Analysis. —108. Name the object of says. 

109. What is the meaning of guise ? 

110. by far the noblest aim. ' Give grammatical construction. 
113. What figure in the line ? 

116. tickled ear. Whjft figure ? 
raise. Is this correct ? 

117. What is the antecedent of they? 

118. Supply the ellipsis in the line. 

118-124. Name the objects of reads. 

120. Grammatical construction of wage ? 

120, 121. Give the meaning of these lines. 





166 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Or how the royal bard did groaning lie 
Beneath the stroke of Heaven’s avenging ire; 

Or Job’s pathetic plaint and wailing cry; 

Or rapt Isaiah’s wild, seraphic fire; 

Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre. 

15. Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme,— 

How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed ; 

How He who bore in heaven the second name 
Had not on earth whereon to lay his head; 

How his first followers and servants sped 
The precepts sage they wrote to many a land; 

How he, who, lone in Patmos banished, 

Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand, 

And heard great Babylon’s doom pronounced by Heaven’s 
command. 

16. Then, kneeling down, to Heaven’s Eternal King 
The saint, the father, and the husband prays: 

Hope “ springs exulting on triumphant wing ” 

That thus they all shall meet in future days, 

There ever bask in uncreated rays, 

No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear, 

Together hymning their Creator’s praise 


Analysis.—122. Who was the royal hard? 

124. 'pathetic plaint. Notice the alliteration. Meaning of plaint ? 
127. Meaning of theme ? 

129. To what does He refer ? 

130. Supply ellipsis. Dispose of whereon. 

133-135. To whom do these lines refer? 

135. Heaven’s command. What figure? 

137. Justify the use of prays instead of pray. 

138. Hope springs, etc. What figure ? 

138. 139. Notice that Hope is used here both figuratively and 
literally. 

139. That thus, etc. What kind of modifier? 

140. To what does There refer ? 

141. Grammatical construction of to sigh and shed? 

142. Give a synonym for hymning. 


125 

130 

135 

140 



ROBERT BURNS. 


167 


In such society, yet still more dear, 

While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere. 

17. Compared with this, how poor Religion’s pride, 145 

In all the pomp of method and of art, 

When men display to congregations wide 
Devotion’s every grace except the heart! 

The Power, incensed, the pageant will desert, 

The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole ; 150 

But haply, in some cottage far apart, 

May hear, well pleased, the language of the soul, 

And in his book of life the inmates poor enroll. 

18. Then homeward all take off their several way; 

The youngling cottagers retire to rest; 155 

The parent pair their secret homage pay, 

And proffer up to Heaven the warm request, 

That He who stills the raven’s clamorous nest, 

And decks the lily fair in flowery pride, 

Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best, 160 

For them and for their little ones provide; 

But, chiefly, in their hearts with grace divine preside. 


Notes.—150. stole, a long nar¬ 
row scarf with fringed 
edges. 


151. far apart, distant from others. 

154. take off, depart. 

155. youngling, etc., the children. 


Analysis. —143. The meaning of society here ? 

144. What figure in the line ? The meaning of sphere t 

145. Point out the figure in the line. Supply the ellipsis. 
149, 150. Give the meaning of these lines. 

151-153. Rewrite in prose. 

152. What is the subject of May hear ? 

154. Why is v:ay used, instead of ways ? 

156. secret homage. Give the meaning. 

157. proffer up. Criticise. 

158. raven’s clamorous nest. What figure? 

159. Point out the figure in the line. 





168 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


19. From scenes like these old Scotia’s grandeur springs, 
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad: 
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, 

“An honest man’s the noblest work of God.” 

And certes, in fair virtue’s heavenly road, 

The cottage leaves the palace far behind. 

What is a lordling’s pomp ? a cumbrous load, 
Disguising oft the wretch of human kind, 

Studied in arts of Hell, in wickedness refined! 

20. O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! 

For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent I 
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil 
Be blest with health and peace and sweet content! 
And, oh, may Heaven their simple lives prevent 
From Luxury’s contagion, weak and vile! 

Then, howe’er crowns and coronets be rent, 

A virtuous populace may rise the while, 

And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved isle. 

21. 0 Thou! who pour’d the patriotic tide 

That stream’d through Wallace’s undaunted heart; 
Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride, 

Or nobly die, the second glorious part, 


Analysis.— 163. The meaning of Scotia’s ? 

164. What is the antecedent of That? 

165. Parse but. 

Explain the figure in the line. 

168. What figure in the line ? Give the syntax of far and behind. 
169-171. Name the subjects and the predicates in these lines. 

172, 173. Point out the figure. 

178. crowns and coronets be rent. What figure? 

179. Grammatical construction of while? 

180. Parse wall. Point out the figure in the line. 

181. Name the figure in this line. 

182. Who was Wallace, referred to in this line ? 

183. to nobly stem. Criticise. What is the antecedent of Who ? 

184. the second glorious part. Dispose of second. 


165 

170 

175 

180 



CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


169 


(The patriot’s God peculiarly Thou art, 

His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward!) 

Oh, never, never, Scotia’s realm desert; 

But still the patriot, and the patriot-bard, 

In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard! 


Analysis. —185, 186. Analyze the sentence. 
189. To what do ornament and guard refer? 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 

POETS. 

James Beattie (1735-1803).—A Scotch poet.- Professor of 
Moral Philosophy and Logic at Aberdeen. Educated at Maris- 
chal College. Author of The Minstrel , published in 1771. Died 
of paralysis. 

James Macpherson (1738-1796).—Born at Kingussie, Scot¬ 
land. Educated at Aberdeen. Author of Fingal and Temora, 
two epics. 

Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770).—Known as the “Boy Poet.” 
Author of a number of poems written in imitation of the older 
English poetry. Committed suicide at the age of eighteen. 

PROSE-WRITERS. 

1. Historians: 

David Hume (1711-1776).—Both an historian and a meta¬ 
physician. Born in Edinburgh. Became a lawyer, but, dis¬ 
liking law, chose literature as his calling. Was a skeptic. 
Author of History of England, Political Discourses, etc. 

William Robertson (1721-1793).—An eloquent Scotch Pres¬ 
byterian preacher. Author of a History of Scotland, History of 
Charles V. of Germany, and History of America. 

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794).—One of England’s most illus¬ 
trious historical writers. Author of Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire. 

2. Novelists : 

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761).—The founder of “the ro¬ 
mance of private life.” Up to the age of fifty he was a printer. 




170 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


His first novel was Pamela (1740). Author also of Clarissa 
Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison. 

Henry Fielding (1707-1754).—Educated at Eton. At first a 
dramatic writer, then a lawyer, but, meeting with no success, 
he resorted to literature for a living. Author of Joseph An¬ 
drews, Tom Jones, Jonathan Wild, and Amelia. 

Laurence Sterne (1713-1768).—An irreligious parson. Edu¬ 
cated at Cambridge. Author of Tristram Shandy and A Senti¬ 
mental Journey. 

Tobias George Smollett (1721-1771).—Educated at the Uni¬ 
versity of Glasgow. Was for a time surgeon’s mate in the navy. 
Began his career as a novelist in 1748. Author of Roderick 
Random, Peregrine Pickle, and Humphrey Clinker. 

Hannah More (1745-1833).—A great favorite of Dr. John¬ 
son’s. Wrote dramas, tales, and some works on education. 
Author of Coelebs in Search of a Wife, The Shepherd of Salisbury 
Plain, Female Education, etc. 

3. Theologians and Metaphysicians: * 

Philip Doddridge (1702-1751).—Remarkable as a theological 

writer. Author of Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, 
Passages in the Life of Colonel Gardiner, and Family Expositor. 

Thomas Reid (1710-1796).—A Scotchman, and Professor of 
Moral Philosophy at Aberdeen and Glasgow. Author of Essays 
on the Intellectual and Active Powers of Alan and Inquiry into the 
Human Alind, an answer to the skepticism of Hume. 

John Wesley (1703-1791).—Educated at Oxford. His best- 
known works are his Journal and his Hymns, in the latter of 
which he was assisted by his brother Charles. 

William Paley (1743-1805).—Educated at Cambridge. Be¬ 
came archdeacon of Carlisle. Author of Aloral and Political 
Philosophy, Evidences of Christianity, and Natural Theology. 

4. Political and Miscellaneous Writers: 

Edmund Burke (1730-1797).—Noted as a political writer and 
orator of great power. Born in Dublin. Was educated at 
Trinity College, Dublin. Became a member of Parliament. 
One of his masterpieces of eloquence is his nine days’ speech 
in the impeachment-trial of Warren Hastings, governor-gen¬ 
eral of India. His most celebrated works, in addition to the 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


171 


address referred to, are his Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful , 
Reflections on the French Revolution , and his Letter to a Noble 
Lord (duke of Bedford). 

Junius.—The name of the author who wrote, under this nom- 
de-plume , a series of political letters characterized by fierce in¬ 
vective and brilliant sarcasm, is unknown. Their writer is sup¬ 
posed to have been Sir Philip Francis, born in Dublin in 
1740, who was chief clerk in the War Office from 1763 to 1772. 

Horace Walpole (1717-1797).—A racy and sparkling writer 
of letters. Was a member of Parliament for twenty-six years. 
Author of a romance, The Castle of Otranto , and some Letters 
and Memoirs of his time which are unrivaled in their way. 

Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780).—A celebrated lawyer. 
Author of Commentaries on the Laws of England. 

James Boswell (1740-1795).—The son of a Scottish judge. 
A constant companion of Dr. Johnson. Author of Life of 
Johnson. 

Adam Smith (1723-1790).—Author of The Wealth of Nations, 
which work laid the foundation for the science of Political 
Economy. Was Professor of Mental Philosophy at Glasgow. 
Author also of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. 

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816).—A great orator and 
an excellent dramatic writer. His two most popular comedies 
are The Rivals and The School for Scandal .. 


VII. 

AGE OF SCOTT. 

1800 - 1830 . 

Reigns of George III. and George IV. 

The Age of Scott is known also as the Age of Ro¬ 
mantic Poetry. The early years of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury having been full of excitement, the chief literary 
productions of this period are characterized by intense 
passion and emotion. No other era of English literature 
presents so many masters of verse. The artificial in 
poetry entirely disappears, and romance and passion be¬ 
come the fountain of poetic inspiration. Many of the 
writers of this era—Scott, Coleridge, Southey, Wilson, 
Campbell, and others—were distinguished in both poetry 
and prose. 


14. LORD BYRON, 

1788 - 1824 . 

George Gordon Byron was born in London on the 
22d of January, 1788. His father, John Byron, was a 
profligate captain of the Guards, and his mother, Cath¬ 
arine Byron, a Scotch heiress. When George was but 
two years old both he and his mother were abandoned 
by his unprincipled father. His mother, with her lame 
boy, then retired to Aberdeen, to live as well as she 

172 



LORD BYRON . 


173 


could on an annual income of one hundred and thirty- 
pounds. 

At the age of eleven Byron became Lord Byron and 
owner of Newstead Abbey through the death of his 
grand-uncle, a man of eccentric character. His mother 
at once sold her household goods, and with her son took 
possession of Newstead. At the age of seventeen he be¬ 
came a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, but his 
stay continued only two years. His irregularities much 
annoyed the college dons. Among other freaks, he kept 
for some time^ several bulldogs and a bear in his room, 
the latter of which he introduced to his visitors as pre¬ 
paring to become one of the college officers. 

His first verses, entitled Hours of Idleness , w-ere pub¬ 
lished in 1807. They contained many weak points, and 
immediately a caustic criticism, supposed to have been 
written by Lord Brougham, appeared in the Edinburgh 
Review. The criticism aroused the poet’s ire, and he 
replied in a satire entitled English Bards and Scotch Re¬ 
viewers. 

Two years (1809 to 1811) were spent by Byron in 
travel through Spain and Turkey, and here he gath¬ 
ered much of the material which afterward appeared 
in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. When the first two cantos 
of this poem were published in 1812 they took England 
by storm, and, though the poet was then but twenty- 
four years of age, he was placed by unanimous consent 
at the head of the London literary world, and the treat¬ 
ment of Burns in Edinburgh was repeated in the wor¬ 
ship and homage paid to Byron in the fashionable par¬ 
lors of London. This lionizing continued for three years, 
during which time he became a member of .the House 
of Lords. 

In 1815 he married Miss Milbanke, but almost from 
the beginning the union was an unhappy one, and after 


174 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


a year’s quarrels and estrangements they separated, she 
returning with her infant daughter to her father’s house. 
Byron found himself abused in the papers and hissed 
in the streets for his treatment of his wife, and in the 
spring of 1816 he left England in disgust, and never 
again saw his native land. 

He wandered over Europe, crossed the Jura, and 
finally reached Italy, where, at Venice and Ravenna 
and Pisa and Rome, he led a wild, irregular life of dis¬ 
sipation, from which he was saved only by an illegiti¬ 
mate attachment to a young Romagnese lady, the 
countess of Guiccioli, who had married a wealthy 
nobleman thrice her own age. It was during his stay 
at these cities that he wrote most of his poems, which 
brought him thousands of pounds. Here also he wrote 
several dramas. In the summer of 1828 he set sail for 
Greece to aid that country in its struggles for independ¬ 
ence. He reached Missolonghi, in Western Greece, on 
the 4th of January, 1824. Here he found everything 
in discord and confusion, but his plans were thoroughly 
prepared, and in the space of three months, with his in¬ 
fluence and his money, he had succeeded in reducing 
the contending factions to order. But on the 9th of 
April, being overtaken by a heavy shower, he became 
at once the victim of rheumatism and a treacherous 
fever, and on the evening of the 19th he died. The 
people of Greece publicly mourned his death, and “ his 
band of turbulent Suliotes gathered, pale and tearful, 
around his coffin” when the funeral-service was read. 
His body was sent to England for burial, and was in¬ 
terred in the family-vault near Newstead. 

Byron’s most important poems are Childe Harold, The 
Dream , The Prisoner of Chillon , Mazeppa, The Bride of 
Abydos , Parisina, The Giaour , The Siege of Corinth , Beppo , 
The Lament of Tasso, The Prophecy of Dante , and Don Juan. 


LORD BYRON. 


175 


CRITICISM BY MACAULAY. 

He was truly a spoiled child—not merely the spoiled 
child of his parents, but the spoiled child of Nature, the 
spoiled child of Fortune, the spoiled child of Fame, the 
spoiled child of Society. His first poems were received 
with a contempt which, feeble as they were, they did not 
absolutely deserve. The poem which he published on 
his return from his travels was, on the other hand, ex¬ 
tolled far above its merits. At twenty-four he found 
himself on the highest pinnacle of literary fame, with 
Scott, Wordsworth, Southey, and a crowd of other dis¬ 
tinguished writers beneath his feet. There is scarcely 
an instance in history of so sudden a rise to so dizzy 
an eminence. 

The obloquy which Byron had to endure was such as 
might well have shaken a more constant mind. The 
newspapers were filled with lampoons. The theatres 
shook with execrations. Fie was excluded from circles 
where he had lately been the observed of all observers. 

The. unhappy man left his country for ever. The howl 
of contumely followed him across the sea, up the Rhine, 
over the Alps; it gradually waxed fainter; it died away. 
Those who had raised it began to ask each other what, 
after all, was the matter about which they had been so 
clamorous, and wished to invite back the criminal whom 
they had just chased from them. His poetry became 
more popular than it had ever been, and his complaints 
were read with tears by thousands and tens of thou¬ 
sands who had never seen his face. He had fixed his 
home on the shores of the Adriatic. He plunged into 
wild and desperate excesses. His health sunk under 
the effects of his intemperance. His verse lost much 
of the energy and condensation which had distinguished 
it. But he would not resign without a struggle. A new 



176 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


dream of ambition arose before him—to be the centre 
of a literary party. The plan failed, and failed igno- 
miniously. 

CHILDE HAKOLD’S PILGKIMAGE. 

Note.— The following are the ten closing stanzas of Childe Harolds 
Pilgrimage , the poem which established Byron’s fame and which made 
him the idol of English literary circles. 

1. Oh! that the desert were my dwelling-place, 

With one fair spirit for my minister, 

That I might all forget the human race, 

And, hating no one, love but only her! 

Ye elements!—in whose ennobling stir 5 

I feel myself exalted—can ye not 
Accord me such a being ? Do I err 
In deeming such inhabit many a spot ? 

Though with them to converse can rarely be our lot. 

2. There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; 10 

There is a rapture on the lonely shore; 

There is society, where none intrudes, 

By the deep sea, and music in its roar: 

I love not man the less, but Nature more, 

From these our interviews, in which I steal _ 15 

From all I may be, or have been before, 

Analysis.— 3. Explain oil forget the human race. 

1-4. What kind of sentence, grammatically ? 

4. love. Give grammatical construction. 

5. Ye elements! What figure? 

5, 6. in whose .... exalted. Give the syntax. 

8. Supply the ellipsis. 

9. What is the subject of can he? 

10. Syntax of There? What is the subject of the clause ? 

13. Give the syntax of music. 

14. What is the office of not and less ? 

15. From these , etc. What is the antecedent ? 
these our. What is the syntax ? 

15, 16. in which I steal from all I may be. Give the meaning. 

15-18. Give the modifiers of steal. ... all conceal. Give the syn¬ 
tax of all. 



LORD BYRON. 


Ill 


To mingle with the universe, and feel 
What I can ne’er express, yet can not all conceal. 

3. Boll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll! 

Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain : 

Man marks the earth with ruin; his control 
Stops with the shore: upon the watery plain 
The wrecks are all thy deed ; nor doth remain 
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own, 

When for a moment, like a drop of rain, 

He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, 

Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown, 

4. His steps are not upon thy paths; thy fields 
Are not a spoil for him ; thou dost arise 

And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields 
For earth’s destruction thou dost all despise, 

Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies, 

And send’st him, shivering in thy playful spray, 

And howling, to his gods, where haply lies 
His petty hope in some near port or bay; 

And dashest him again to earth,—there let him lay! 

5. The armaments which thunderstrike the walls 
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake, 

And monarch tremble in their capitals; 

The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make 
Their clay creator the vain title take 

Analysis. —19. Point out the figure in the line. 

20. Ten thousand fleets sweep, etc. What figure ? 

23. all. What does the word modify ? 

24. Give the syntax of save. 

25. 26. like a drop . ... He sinks. What figure ? Give the syntax 
of like and drop. 

31. all despise. Give the syntax of all. 

28-36. What figure runs through the stanza? 

36. there let him lay. Would this be correct as prose ? 

37-39. Give the meaning of these lines. 

40-43. Give the meaning of these lines. 

41. clay creator. Give the meaning. 

12 


20 

25 

30 

35 

40 



178 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war,— 

These are thy toys; and, as the snowy flake, 

They melt into thy yeast of waves, which mar 
Alike the Armada’s pride or spoils of Trafalgar. 

6. Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee. 
Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage,—what are they ? 
Thy waters wasted them while they were free, 

And many a tyrant since; their shores obey 

The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay 
Has dried up realms to deserts : not so thou 
Unchangeable save to thy wild waves’ play, 

Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow: 

Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou rollest now. 

7. Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty’s form 
Glasses itself in tempests; in all time,— 4 
Calm or convulsed, in breeze or gale or storm, 

Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 
Dark-heaving : boundless, endless, and sublime,— 
The image of Eternity, the throne 

Of the Invisible: even from out thy slime 
The monsters of the deep are made; each zone 
Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. 


Analysis. —43. What are the antecedents of These ? 

43. 44. as the snowy flake, They melt. W T hat figure ? 

44. yeast of waves. What figure ? 

45. Give the meaning of Armada’s pride ; also, spoils of Trafalgar. 

46. save thee. Parse save. 

47. Assyria, Greece, etc. Give syntax. 

49. And many a tyrant since. Explain. 

50. 51. their decay Has dried up realms to deserts. Give the meaning. 

51. not x so thou. Give the syntax. 

52. Parse Unchangeable. 

53. thine azure brow. Give syntax. 

55, 56. the Almighty’s form Glasses itself. What figure? 

56-61. Point out the figure. 

61, 62. from out thy slime .... are made. What figure ? 

62, 63. each zone Obeys thee. What figure ? 


45 

50 

55 

60 



LORD BYRON. 


179 


8. And I have loved thee, Ocean ! and my joy 
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be 
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy 
I wantoned with thy breakers; they to me 
Were a delight; and, if the freshening sea 
Made them a terror, ’twas a pleasing fear; 

For I was, as it.were, a child of thee, 

And trusted to thy billows far and near, 

And laid my hand upon thy mane, as I do here. 

9. My task is done—my song hath ceased—my theme 
Has died into an echo; it is fit 

The spell should break of this protracted dream; 

The torch shall be extinguished which hath lit 
My midnight lamp—and what is writ is writ. 

Would it were worthier! but I am not now 
That which I have been—and my visions flit 
Less palpably before me—and the glow 
Which in my spirit dwelt is fluttering, faint, and low. 

10. Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been— 

A sound which makes us linger,—yet—farewell! 

Ye! who have traced the Pilgrim to the scene 
Which is his last, if in your memories dwell 

Analysis.— 64. And I have loved, etc. What figure in the line? 

66. Borne, like thy bubbles, etc. What figure ? 

67. wantoned. What is the meaning here ? 

68. Giye the meaning of freshening sea f 

71. Give the syntax of far and near. 

72. thy mane. What figure? 

74. What is the meaning of fit here ? 

75. Name the modifiers of spell. 

76. Give the modifiers of torch. 

77. what is writ is writ. Why this form of the verb ? 

78. Would it were worthier. Parse. 

80, 81. the glow .... low. Analyze. 

82. Farewell! a word. Give the construction. 

83. yet—farewell! Give construction. 

84-87. Transpose and analyze. 

85, 86. Explain the figure. 


65 

70 

75 

80 

85 



180 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


A thought which once was his, if on ye swell 

A single recollection, not in vain 

He wore his sandal-shoon and scallop-shell; 

Farewell! with him alone may rest the pain, 

If such there were—with you, the moral of the strain. 90 


Analysis. —86. swell. Is this grammatically correct ? 

88. What is the meaning of sandal-shoon and scallop-shell t 

89. Dispose of the verb in this line. 

90. If such there were. Give the mode of the verb. 

Give the grammatical construction of moral. 


MONT BLANC. 

Note. —The following is taken from Byron’s dramatic poem Man¬ 
fred. A voice, the Second Spirit, speaks: 

Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains; 

They crown’d him long ago 

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, 

With a diadem of snow. 

Around his waist are forests braced, 

The avalanche in his hand; 

But ere it fall, that thundering ball 
Must pause for my command. 

The glacier’s cold and restless mass 
Moves onward day by day; 

But I am he who bids it pass, 

Or with its ice delay. 

•I am the spirit of the place, 

Could make the mountain bow 

And quiver to his caverned base— 

And what with me wouldst Thou t 




15. SIR WALTER SCOTT, 

1771 - 1832 . 

Walter Scott, the brilliant and versatile Scotch poet 
and novelist, was born in Edinburgh on the 15th of Au¬ 
gust, 1771. His father was a writer to The Signet, his 
mother being the daughter of an eminent physician of 
Edinburgh. Walter at the age of eighteen months was 
made lame as the result of a severe teething fever. His 
early education was acquired in the Edinburgh High 
School, but he subsequently took a short course in the 
University of Edinburgh. 

At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to his father. 
Having served his apprenticeship, he began the study 
cf law, and in 1792 “ donned the wig and gown of a 
Scottish advocate.” But as a lawyer Scott could never 
lay claim to much success. His great delight was in 
reading Spenser, Percy’s Reliques , Boccaccio, and Frois¬ 
sart, and he was well read also in Shakespeare and 
Milton. 

His literary career began with the translation of 
Burger’s Lenore from the German. This was published 
in 1796. Soon after this he married Charlotte Carpen¬ 
ter, and they settled in a cottage at Lasswade. Here he 
relieved his literary labors with cavalry-drills, for he was 
at this time also quartermaster of the Edinburgh Light- 
horse. 

In 1799 he was appointed sheriff of the county of 
Selkirk, with a salary of three hundred pounds a year, 
and with his savings from this, added to a small fortune 
which his wife brought him, he bought a farm on the 

181 


182 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Tweed, not far from Yarrow; and it was here that his 
first great poem, The Lay of the Last Minstrel , was writ¬ 
ten. It was published in 1805, and it at once placed 
its author in the foremost rank as an English poet. It 
was but the first of a series of romances in verse, among 
the best of which were the two stirring poems, Marmion 
and The Lady of the Lake. 

Scott’s habits as a writer were among the most regu¬ 
lar possible. He rose usually at five, dressed with care, 
and went to see his horses. At six he was at his desk, 
with a dog or two lying at his feet. Here he remained 
until nine or ten, when he breakfasted. After breakfast 
he resumed writing, which he continued until noon. 
During the afternoon he usually rode much, often hunt¬ 
ing hares, or glided back and forth on the Tweed in his 
boat. 

In 1806, Scott was appointed one of the clerks of the 
Sessions, which added eight hundred pounds a year to 
his income. He now bought additional tracts of land 
from time to time, and built up his noted home, Abbots¬ 
ford. The poet Byron about this time was winning fame 
rapidly, and Scott at once left the field of poesy and be¬ 
took himself to prose. In 1814 appeared his first prose 
romance, Waverley, but without the author’s name. The 
success of this novel was immediately remarkable. He 
soon added others, but so guarded was the secret of the 
author’s name that even the printers found the manu¬ 
script copied by one of the Ballantynes, his publishers, 
before it was sent to press. 

The Waverley series consists of twenty-seven novels, 
eighteen of which are historical in character, being 
founded upon events ranging from the eleventh to the 
eighteenth century. Among the best of these romances 
are Guy Mannering , Ivanhoe, Old Mortality , Heart of Mid¬ 
lothian , Waverley, Rob Roy, Kenilworth , and A Legend of 


SIR WALTER SCOTT. 


183 


Montrose. While writing these romances he wrote also 
the Life and Works of Dryden, in eighteen volumes, the 
Life and Works of Dean Swift , the Life of Napoleon , Tales 
of a Grandfather , and a number of other works. 

By the failure of his publishers Scott found himself 
at the age of fifty-five in debt to the extent of one hun¬ 
dred and twenty thousand pounds, and he set to work 
immediately to pay the debt with the earnings of his 
pen. Four years later, in 1830, he was stricken with 
paralysis, and from this time onward he suffered at in¬ 
tervals attacks of both apoplexy and paralysis. In 1832, 
on the 21st of September, the great author died, having 
in the six years following the failure of his publishers 
paid more than half the indebtedness which he had so 
diligently struggled to liquidate. 

The honor of a baronetcy, which gave Scott the title 
“ Sir Walter,” was conferred on him by King George IV. in 
1820, in consideration of his excellence as a writer. The 
position of poet-laureate was tendered him in 1812, but 
he declined the honor with respectful thanks. No more 
industrious writer than Scott ever plied the pen. Indeed, 
his success as a literary man was due much more to his 
industry than to his scholarship. 


CRITICISM BY W. F. COLLIER. 

Though facile, princeps in his own peculiar realm of 
poetry, Scott’s brilliant renown rests chiefly on his novels. 
The same love of chivalrous adventure and mediaeval 
romance colors his best works in both branches of lit¬ 
erature. The author of Marmion and The Lady of the 
Lake was just the man to produce, in maturer age and 
with finer literary skill, the changeful, pathetic brilliance 
of Waverley and the courtty splendor of Kenilworth. Of 
his poems, The Lady of the Lake is perhaps the best. 


184 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Nothing could surpass, for vivid force, the meeting and 
the duel between the disguised king and the rebel chief¬ 
tain, Roderick Dhu, or that rapid flight of the Fiery 
Cross over mountain and moor by which the clansmen 
are summoned to the tryst. The opening of Michael 
Scott’s'grave in The Lay of the Last Minstrel , and the bat¬ 
tle of Flodden at the close of Marmionj are pictures that 
none but true genius could paint. The fine songs scat¬ 
tered through the works of Scott afford further evidence 
of his great poetic powers. 'Who does not know and 
delight in “ Young Lochinvar ” and “Bonnie Dundee”? 

Scott was eminently a painter in words. The pictur¬ 
esque was his forte. Witness the magnificent descrip¬ 
tions of natural scenery—sunsets, stormy sea, deep wood¬ 
land glades—with which many of his chapters open. 
But his portraitures surpass his landscapes. For va¬ 
riety and true painting of character he was undoubt¬ 
edly the Shakespeare of our English prose. What a 
crowd of names, “ familiar as household words,” come 
rushing on the mind as we think of the gallery of por¬ 
traits his magical pencil has left for our endless delight 
and study! 


LOCHINVAR. 

i. 

Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the West,— 

Through all the wide Border his steed was the best! 

And, save his good broadsword, he weapon had none,— 

He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone. 

So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, 5 

There never was knight like the young Lochinvar. 

Analysis. — 1 . is come. Modernize. 

2. wide Border. What figure? 

3. Give the construction of save and weapon. 

4. Give the syntax of all , unarmed , and all. 

5. Parse so and faithful. 



SIR WALTER SCOTT. 


185 


ii. 

He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone, 

He swam the Eske river where ford there was none; 

But, ere he alighted at Netherby gate, 

The bride had consented, the gallant came late: 10 

For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war, 

Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar. 

in. 

So boldly he entered the Netherby hall, 

’Mong bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all: 

Then spoke the bride’s father, his hand on his sword 15 

(For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word), 

“ Oh, come ye in peace here, or come ye in war, 

Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar ?”— 

IV. 

“ I long woqed your daughter,—my suit you denied;— 

Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide f 20 

And now am I come, with this lost love of mine 
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine. 


Analysis.—7. He stayed not; that is, he hesitated not. 

8. Dispose of none. 

9. Parse ere. 

10. Name the modifiers of consented . ... the gallarit came late. To 
whom does this refer ? 

11. What is the meaning of laggard? 

12. Give the grammatical construction of to wed. 

13. Give the syntax of so. What are the modifiers of entered? 

15. Supply ellipsis, and give the syntax of hand. 

16. Parse never. 

19. Write in prose order. 

20. Point out the figure in this line. Explain the line. 

21. am come. What is the common form ? 

with this lost love. What does the phrase modify ? 

Give the syntax of mine. 

22. To lead but one measure. Give the meaning. 



186 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

There are maidens in Scotland, more lovely by far, 

That would gladly he bride to the young Lochinvar.” 

y. 

The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up ; 

He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup. 

She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh, 

With a smile on her lip, and a tear in her eye. 

He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,— 

“ Now tread we a measure!” said young Lochinvar. 

Vi. • 

So stately his form, and so lovely her face, 

That never a hall such a galliard did grace; 

While her mother did fret, and her father did fume, 

And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume; 
And the bride-maidens whispered, “’Twere better, by far, 

To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar.” 

VII. 

One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear, 

When they reached the hall-door, and the charger stood near; 
So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung, 

So light to the saddle before her he sprung: 


Analysis. —23. Give the construction of There and far. 

23, 24. Name the modifiers of maidens. 

25. Parse up. 

26. Give the syntax of off and down. 

29. What is the meaning of bar ? 

30. “ Now tread we a measure /” What is the meaning ? Give the 
syntax of tread. 

30. What is the object of said t 
32. What is the meaning of galliard ? 

35. What is the object of whispered ? Give the grammatical con¬ 
struction of , Twere and far. Name the modifiers of better. 

36. Give the construction of To have matched. 

39. Give the construction of light. 

37. 38. Explain these lines. 

39. What is the meaning of croupe ? 


25 

30 

35 

40 



SIR WALTER SCOTT. 


187 


“ She is won! we are gone! over bank, bush, and scaur; 
They’ll have fleet steeds that follow,” quoth young Lochinvar. 

VIII. 

There was mounting ’mong Graemes of the Netherby clan; 
Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran: 
There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee, 

But the lost bride of Netherby ne’er did they see. 

So daring in love, and so dauntless in war, 

Have ye e’er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar ? 


Analysis.—41. Parse gone. Name the modifiers of gone. 

41. scaur here means a precipitous rock. 

42. Name the antecedent of that. Give the syntax and the modi¬ 
fiers of quoth. 

43. ’ mong. What figure of orthography ? Explain the line. 

46. ne’er. Of what is this a contraction? Give the modifiers of 
see. 

47. What do daring and dauntless modify? 

48. Explain the contraction e’er. Give the construction of like 
and Lochinvar. 


THE LAST MINSTREL. 

The way was long, the wind was cold, 
The Minstrel was infirm and old; 

His withered cheek, and tresses gray, 
Seemed to have known a better day; 
The harp, his sole remaining joy, 

Was carried by an orphan boy: 

The last of all the Bards was he 
Who sung of Border chivalry; 

For, well-a-day! their date was fled, 
His tuneful brethren all were dead; 
And he, neglected and oppressed, 
Wished to be with them, and at rest. 
No more, on prancing palfrey borne, 
He caroled, light as lark at morn; 


45 




188 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


No longer, courted and caressed, 

High placed in hall, a welcome guest, 

He poured, to lord and lady gay, 

The unpremeditated lay. 

Old times were changed, old manners gone; 
A stranger fills the Stuarts’ throne; 

The bigots of the iron time 

Had called his harmless art a crime. 

A wandering harper, scorned and poor, 

He begged his way from door to door; 

And tuned, to please a peasant’s ear, 

The harp a king had loved to hear. 


PATRIOTISM. 

Breathes there a man with soul so dead 
Who never to himself hath said, 

This is my own, my native land ?— 
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned, 
As home his footsteps he hath turned • 

From wandering on a foreign strand ? 

If such there breathe, go, mark him well; 
For him no minstrel raptures swell; 

High though his titles, proud his name, 
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, 
Despite those titles, power, and pelf, 

The wretch, concentred all in self, 

Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 

And, doubly dying, shall go down 
To the vile dust from whence he sprung, 
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung. 



16. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 


1772 - 1834 . 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a poet of rich imagina¬ 
tion and a prose-writer noted for his profound thought, 
was born in Devonshire on the 20th of October, 1772. 
His father was vicar of the parish of Ottery St. Mary. 
Coleridge was left an orphan at an early age, and his 
education was conducted at the orphan school of 
Christ’s Hospital, often known as the “ Blue-Coat 
School.” Here he met the genial and gentle Charles 
Lamb, also a Blue-Coat boy, and the foundation of a 
lifelong friendship between the two was established. 
From the Blue-Coat School, Coleridge went in 1791 to 
Jesus College, Cambridge, w T here he remained two years. 
By this time he had incurred some debts, amounting to 
nearly one hundred pounds. This so weighed on his 
mind that he left college and went to London. Almost 
starving in London, he enlisted as a soldier in the Fif¬ 
teenth Light Dragoons under the assumed name of Com- 
berbach, but he never rose above the position of private 
soldier. His captain, noticing some Latin written by 
Coleridge near his saddle hanging on the stable-wall, 
hunted up the soldier’s history and inquired into his 
circumstances. As a result, Coleridge was released early 
in April, 1794. Soon after this he met Southey in Bris¬ 
tol, and these two, with four other equally inexperienced 
enthusiasts, planned a scheme of emigration to some 
point on the Susquehanna in America, where they de¬ 
signed to found a “ Pantisocracy,” a state of society in 

189 


190 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

which each was to have his portion of work assigned, 
the wives to perform the household duties, and all 
goods and property to he held in common. The lei¬ 
sure-time of the poets was to be devoted to literature, 
with no one to interfere with their happiness. But, fail¬ 
ing to secure the necessary money to carry their plans 
into execution, the scheme was abandoned. Driven 
again almost to starvation, Coleridge was compelled to 
seek employment with a Bristol bookseller, and soon 
thereafter he married a young lady whose sister became 
the wife of the poet Southey. After his marriage he 
went to reside in a cottage at Nether Stowey, near Quan- 
tock Hills, and here, during the next three years, he 
wrote his best poems. Here were produced the Ode to 
the Departing Year , The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , and 
the first part of Christabel , which it is said he was 
induced to publish through the influence of Lord 
Byron. 

In 1798, through the kindness of the Wedge woods of 
Staffordshire, Coleridge was enabled to take a fourteen 
months’ trip to Germany to complete his education. 
On his return, in 1800, he went to Keswick.to live with 
Southey. Here his opinions underwent a change, and 
from a Unitarian he became a Trinitarian, and from 
being a republican he became a devoted royalist. It 
was here also, as the associate of Southey and Words¬ 
worth, that he became known as one of the Lake poets. 
He, however, left the Lakes and went to live in London, 
leaving his family to be cared for by Southey. 

His habits, always more or less desultory and irreg¬ 
ular, became more so now through the constant use of 
opium. He was a dreamer, and had been slothful from 
childhood. He often made efforts at hard literary work, 
but as often his laziness overcame him and his plans 
failed. For the last nineteen years of his life he was 


SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 191 

sheltered by a friendly surgeon, Gilman of Highgate. 
Coleridge died in July, 1834. 

In addition to the poems already mentioned, his Gene¬ 
vieve and Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni are 
the best. Among his prose works the most important 
are Aids to Reflection, Lectures on Shakespeare, Lay Sermons, 
Table'Talk, and Biographia Literaria. 

CRITICISM. 

Coleridge was a writer who manifested his literary 
power in various ways. He was not only a poet, but 
also a great philosopher and critic. Some of his poetry, 
it is true, is more or less artificial, but much of it pos¬ 
sesses considerable merit. Previous to the time of Car¬ 
lyle he was the chief English exponent of German 
thought and philosophy. All his metaphysical writings 
are colored with the speculative philosophy of Kant and 
Schelling. Indeed, Professor Ferrier charges him direct¬ 
ly with plagiarism from Schelling and others. As has 
been said, he was a dreamer, and rarely carried his 
schemes into execution. For years he had planned a 
series of magnificent essays and grand epics, but he 
never wrote a line of either. As a conversationalist he 
had few equals, and near the close of his life he wrote 
little and talked more, thus exerting an immense influ¬ 
ence through his wonderful powers of conversation. 

HYMN BEFORE" SUNRISE IN THE YALE OF 
CHAMOUNI. 

I. 

Hast thou a charm to stay the morning-star 
In his steep course ? So long he seems to pause 


Analysis.—1, 2. morning-star, etc. What figure ? 

1. Give grammatical construction of to slay. 

2. Name the modifiers of to pause. 



192 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


On thy bald, awful head, 0 sovereign Blanc! 

The Arve and Arveiron at thy base 

Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful form, 5 

Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines, 

How silently! Around thee, and above, 

Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black, 

An ebon mass : methinks thou piercest it 

As with a wedge. But when I look again 10 

It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, 

Thy habitation from eternity. 

II. 

0 dread and silent Mount! I gazed upon thee 
Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, 

Didst vanish from my thought: entranced in prayer 15 

I worshiped the Invisible alone. 

Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody,— 

So sweet we know not we are listening to it,— 

Thou, the mean while wast blending with my thought, 


Analysis.—3. 0 sovereign Blanc ! What figure ? Grammatical 
construction of Blanc? 

4. Arve and Arveiron. These are two rivers rising at the foot of 
Mont Blanc. 

5. Rave ceaselessly. What figure? Select another figure in the 
line. 

6. Give grammatical construction of from forth. Point out a figure 
in the line. 

7-10. Analyze the sentence. 

10. Give the syntax of as. 

11, 12. Name the nouns in these lines, and give syntax. 

13. Point out the figures. 

14. 'present. Give the grammatical construction. 
bodily sense. Explain. 

15. entranced. Give the grammatical construction. 

17. Grammatical construction of sweet and melody ? 

18. we know not , etc. What kind of element, and what does it 
modify? What are the modifiers of know? 

19. Give the syntax of mean while; also, the modifiers of wast 
blending. 



SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 


193 


Yea, with my life, and life’s own secret joy; 

Till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused, 

Into the mighty vision passing—there, 

As in her natural form, swelled vast to heaven. 

in. 

Awake, my soul! Not only passive praise 
Thou owest! not alone these swelling tears, 

Mute thanks, and secret ecstasy ! Awake, 

Voice of sweet song ! Awake, my heart, awake ! 
Green vales and icy cliffs ! all join my hymn! 

IY. 

Thou first and chief, sole sovereign of the vale! 
Oh, struggling with the darkness all the night, 
And visited all night by troops of stars, 

Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink,— 
Companion of the morning-star at dawn, 

Thyself earth’s rosy star, and of the dawn 
Co-herald—wake ! oh wake ! and utter praise I 
Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in earth ? 

Who filled thy countenance with rosy light ? 

Who made thee parent of perpetual streams ? 


Analysis. —21. Parse enrapt and transfused. 

23. Give the syntax of as and vast. 

24. What figure in the line ? Dispose of not only. 

25. 26. What are the objects of owest ? 

28. Parse all. 

29. sovereign of the vale. What figure ? 

30. Point out the figure in the line. Dispose of night. 

31. Dispose of visited. 

32. Explain the figure in this line. 

34. Grammatical construction of star ? 

35. Give the meaning of Co-herald. 

36. sank. Should this be “sank” or “sunk”? Name and ex¬ 
plain the figure in the line. 

37. Point out the figure, and name it. 

38. Explain the figure. Parse parent. 

13 


20 

25 

30 

35 



194 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


v. 

And you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad! 

Who called you forth from night and utter death, 40 

From dark and icy caverns called you forth, 

Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks, 

For ever shattered, and the same for ever? 

Who gave you your invulnerable life, 

Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, 45 

Unceasing thunder, and eternal foam? 

And who commanded,—and the silence came,— 

“ Here let the billows stiffen and have rest ” ? 

VI. 

Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain’s brow 

Adown enormous ravines slope amain— : 50 

Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, 

And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge! 

Motionless torrents! silent cataracts! 

Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven 
Beneath the keen full moon ? Who bade the sun 55 

Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers 
Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet ? 


VII. 

“ God!” let the torrents, like a shout of nations, 

Answer! and let the ice-plain echo, “ God 1” 

“ God,” sing, ye meadow-streams, with gladsome voice 60 


Note.— 39. five wild torrents; 
In addition to the rivers 
Arve and Arveiron, five 


other torrents rush madly 
down the sides of Mont 
Blanc. 


Analysis. — 40. Grammatical construction of forth ? 

43. Parse the words for ever. 

44. you. Give grammatical construction. 

47. Give the syntax of commanded. 

48. let the billows stiffen. . Explain the figure. 

51. Give the syntax of torrents and methinks. 

56. Dispose of the word clothe. 

58. Give the grammatical construction of the word God. 
60. Give the grammatical construction of meadow-streams. 





SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 


195 


Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds! 
And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow, 

And in their perilous fall shall thunder, “ God!” 

yiii. 

Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost! 

Ye wild goats sporting round the eagle’s nest! 

Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain-storm! 

Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds! 

Ye signs and wonders of the elements! 

Utter forth “ God!” and fill the hills with praise! 

IX. 

Thou, too, hoar mount! with thy sky-pointing peaks, 
Oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard, 

Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene 
Into the depth of clouds that veil thy breast,— 

Thou too, again, stupendous mountain! thou 
That, as I raise my head, awhile bowed low 
In adoration, upward from thy base 
Slow traveling, with dim eyes suffused with tears, 
Solemnly seemest, like a vapory cloud 
To rise before me,—rise, oh ever rise! 

Rise, like a cloud of incense, from the earth! 

Thou kingly spirit, throned among the hills, 

Thou dread ambassador from earth to heaven, 

Great Hierarch! tell thou the silent sky, 

And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, 

Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God. 


Analysis. —62, 63. Explain the figure. 

64. skirt the eternal frost. What figure ? 

69. Name the subject of utter. Give the syntax of forth. 

70-85. Point out the figures occurring in these lines. 

71. Name the modifiers of avalanche. 

72. shoots downward. Name the modifiers of shoots. 

75. Parse the word awhile. 

77. Justify the use of slow. 

78. What does solemnly modify? Give the syntax of like and cloud. 
83-85. Give the modifiers of tell. 


65 

70 

75 

80 

85 



17. THOMAS MOORE, 

1779 - 1852 . 

Thomas Moore, the great Irish writer of lyrics and 
the personal friend of Byron, was born in Dublin on 
the 28th of May, 1779. He was educated mostly in the 
University of Dublin, and having won distinction here 
he went to London to study law. He, however, soon 
gave more attention to poetry than to law. His first 
literary venture was a translation of the Odes of Anacreon , 
published in 1800. This was dedicated to the Prince 
Regent, and it secured Moore’s immediate introduction 
into that gay and fashionable society of London of which 
he was a frequenter to the time of his death. 

In 1804 he was appointed to a government post in 
the Bermudas. This gave him an opportunity to visit 
America, but he left the work to be performed by a 
subordinate, who proved dishonest and caused Moore 
to lose a considerable sum of public money, which the 
poet afterward paid by the product of his literary labors. 

The works for which Moore is chiefly remembered are 
his Irish Melodies , about a hundred and twenty-five in 
number, and his Lalla Bookh, a brilliant picture of East¬ 
ern life and thought. It .is said that while writing this 
poem Moore shut himself up in a Derbyshire cottage 
with a number of books on Oriental history and travel; 
and so faithfully did he portray Eastern life that- he was 
asked on one occasion by one well acquainted with Asia 
as to when he had traveled in that portion of the world. 
The Fudge Family in Paris is his most sparkling satire. 
Many of his melodies have been repeated and sung 

196 


THOMAS MOORE. 


197 


wherever the English language is spoken. Many of 
them, as The Canadian Boat-Song , Those Evening Bells , The 
Last Rose of Summer , and Come , ye Disconsolate , are known 
to every lover of poetry' and music. 

Many of Moore’s writings, however, are neither pro¬ 
found nor of a high moral tone. His most elaborate 
poem, Lalla RooJch, was published in 1817. In addition 
to his poems, he wrote also a large number of political 
squibs and the biographies of Sheridan, Byron, and 
Lord Fitzgerald. 

After having lived a brilliant and fashionable life in 
London for half a century, Moore died in 1852. 


CRITICISM BY ROBERT CHAMBERS. 

When time shall have destroyed the attractive charm* 
of Moore’s personal qualities, and removed his works to 
a distance, to be judged of by their fruit alone, the want 
most deeply felt will be that of simplicity and genuine 
passion. He has worked little in the durable and per¬ 
manent materials of poetry, but has spent his prime in 
enriching the stately structure with exquisite ornaments, 
foliage, flowers, and gems. He has preferred the myrtle 
to the olive or the oak. His longer poems want human 
interest. Tenderness and pathos he undoubtedly pos¬ 
sesses, but they are fleeting and evanescent—not em¬ 
bodied in his verse in any tale of melancholy grandeur 
or strain of affecting morality or sentiment. He often 
throws into his gay and festive verses and his fanciful 
descriptions touches of pensive and mournful reflection, 
which strike by their truth and beauty and by the force 
of contrast. 

The Irish Melodies are full of true feeling and delicacy. 
By universal consent, and by the sure test of memory, 
these national strains are the most popular and the most 


198 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


likely to be immortal of all Moore’s works. They are 
musical almost beyond parallel in words—graceful 
in thought and sentiment, often tender, pathetic, and 
heroic—and they blend poetical and romantic feelings 
with the objects and sympathies of common life in lan¬ 
guage chastened and refined, yet apparently so simple 
that every trace of art has disappeared. 

THE TUEF SHALL BE MY FLAGRANT SHRINE. 

The turf shall be my fragrant shrine ; 

My temple, Lord! that arch of Thine; 

My censer’s breath the mountain-airs, 

And silent thoughts my only prayers. 

My choir shall be the moonlight waves 
"When murmuring homeward to their caves, 

Or when the stillness of the sea, 

E’en more than music, breathes of Thee. 

I’ll seek, by day, some glade unknown, 

All light and silence, like Thy throne! 

And the pale stars shall be, at night, 

The only eyes that watch my rite. 

Thy heaven, on which ’tis bliss to look, 

Shall be my pure and shining book, 

Where I shall read, in words of flame, 

The glories of Thy wondrous name. 


Analysis. —2. Parse Lord, arch , and Thine. What figure in line 2 ? 
3, 4. Name the subject of each clause. 

6. When murmuring, etc. What does this phrase modify ? 

8. Give the syntax of den and more. 

9. The meaning of glade t 

10. All light and silence ; that is, “ which is all light and silence.” 
Dispose of All, like, and throne. 

11,12. Point out the figure. What does the phrase at night modify ? 
13. Dispose of the word look. 

15. What are the modifiers of shall read f 



THOMAS MOORE. 


199 


I’ll read Thy anger in the rack 

That clouds a while the day-beam’s track— 

Thy mercy in the azure hue 

Of sunny brightness breaking through! 20 

There’s nothing bright, above, below, 

From flowers that bloom to stars that glow, 

But in its light my soul can see 
Some feature of thy Deity. 

There’s nothing dark, below, above, 25 

But in its gloom I trace Thy love, 

And meekly wait that moment when 
Thy touch shall turn all bright again ! 


Analysis. —17. rack. What is the meaning ? 

18. Give the grammatical construction of a while. 

19. What is the syntax of mercy? 

20. Parse breaking and through. 

21. Dispose of There? s, bright, above, and below. 

27. Grammatical construction of wait and moment ? 

28. Give construction of shall turn, all, and bright. 


THOSE EVENING BELLS. 

Those evening bells! those evening bells! 
How many a tale their music tells 
Of love and home, and that sweet time 
When last I heard their soothing chime! 

Those joyous hours are passed away; 

And many a heart, that then was gay, 
Within the tomb now darkly dwells, 

And hears no more those evening bells. 

And so ’twill be when I am gone; 

That tuneful peal will still ring on, 

While other bards shall walk these dells, 
And sing your praise, sweet evening bells. 




200 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


THE GLOEY OF GOD IIS CREATION. 


I. 

Thou art, O God, tlie life and light 
Of all this wondrous world we see; 

Its glow by day, its smile by night, 

Are but reflections caught from Thee. 
Where’er we turn, Thy glories shine, 
And all things fair and bright are Thine. 


II. 

When day, with farewell beam, delays 
Among the opening clouds of even. 

And we can almost think we gaze 
Through opening vistas into heaven, 

Those hues that make the sun’s decline 
So soft, so radiant, Lord, are Thine. 

III. 

When night, with wings of starry gloom, 
O’ershadows all the earth and skies, 

Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume 
Is sparkling with unnumbered eyes, 

That sacred gloom, those fires divine, 

So grand, so countless, Lord, are Thine. 

IY. 

When youthful Spring around us breathes, 
Thy spirit warms her fragrant sigh, 

And every flower that Summer wreathes 
Is born beneath Thy kindling eye: 
Where’er we turn, Thy glories shine, 

And all things fair and bright are Thine. 


18. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, 

1770 - 1850 . 

William Wordsworth, known as the chief of the 
Lake School of poets, of which Coleridge and Southey 
also were prominent members, was the son of an attor¬ 
ney. He was born on the 7th of April, 1770, in Cum¬ 
berland. He and his associates, who were noted for the 
simplicity not only of their themes, but also of their 
manner of expression, were known as the Lake School 
from their residing among the lakes of North-western 
England. 

Having lost both father and mother at a very early 
age, Wordsworth’s education was cared for by an uncle, 
who sent him to St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1787. 
Here, it is said, he read a great deal, studied Italian, 
wrote poetry, and pursued his work in what he con¬ 
sidered a narrow course of study. His vacations were 
spent mostly in making tours of Switzerland and 
France. 

His friends were desirous that he should become a 
clergyman, but Wordsworth’s great passion was for 
poetry. His first venture was the publication of two 
short poems entitled An Evening Walk and Descriptive 
Sketches. The clearest minds at once recognized his 
genius. Coleridge, who afterward became his lasting 
friend, was particularly impressed with the merit of 
these poems. But poetry did not promise Wordsworth 
a living, and he began to think of making either law or 
journalism his profession, when, fortunately for him and 
the literature of the language, a dying friend, Calvert, 

201 




202 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


bequeathed him nine hundred pounds, with the press¬ 
ing request that he would devote himself to poetry. 

Soon thereafter Wordsworth settled down in Somerset¬ 
shire with his sister, where he wrote Salisbury Plain and 
a tragedy. Here also he made the acquaintance of Cole¬ 
ridge, and in 1798 they published a volume together 
called Lyrical Ballads , the first part of which was Cole¬ 
ridge’s Ancient Mariner , and the remaining poems those 
written by Wordsworth. But the book met with little 
success. 

Wordsworth now made a tour of Germany, and on 
his return he and his sister removed to a cottage at 
Grasmere, where he married. A debt of eight thou¬ 
sand five hundred pounds which had been due to his 
father was paid about this time, and the poet was now 
enabled to devote himself entirely to his chosen task. 
Having removed from Grasmere to Rydal Mount, he 
was appointed, about the year 1815, to the office of dis¬ 
tributor of stamps, with a salary of five hundred pounds 
a year, and but little work. In the following year he 
published his greatest poem, The Excursion , which met 
at first with much criticism, but which has proved to be 
one of the classics of the language. 

From his being the poet of Nature, Wordsworth has 
often been called “ the English Bryant,” as Bryant has 
frequently been styled “the American Wordsworth.” 
On the death of Southey, in 1843, Wordsworth was 
made poet-laureate. His chief poem, as has been said, 
is The Excursion. Among the most popular of his 
shorter poems are The White Doe of Rylstone , Ruth, We 
are Seven , Lines on Revisiting the Wye , Laodamia , and Ode 
on Immortality. 

In 1842, Wordsworth, then seventy-two years of age, 
resigned his public office to his son, and in 1850, on the 
23d of April, he died at Rydal Mount, and was buried 


WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 203 

at Grasmere by the side of a much-loved daughter, 
whose death occurred three years before. 

CRITICISM BY R. H. DANA. 

Mr. Wordsworth appeared in good time, with a 
marked, original mind, an imagination filled with forms 
of beauty and grandeur, and with a profound spiritual 
philosophy, so universally pervasive, so predominant, 
and partaking so much of system and form, that , he 
may be said to have presented poetry under a new 
phasis. 

Yet he has such an air of thoughtful truth in his 
stories and characters, and the sentiments put into the 
mouths of his people, though so elevated, have such a 
simplicity of expression, and so distinct are his descrip¬ 
tions and so like to what we see around us, that we do 
not stop to consider we are taken out of the world and 
daily reality into the regions of imagination and poetry. 
It may at first seem strange that the poetical interest 
should be so deep where there is so slight a departure 
from plain experience in the circumstances. But it is 
the silent change wrought in ourselves, through the 
great depth of the sentiment and the utter and beau¬ 
tiful simplicity of the language, that awakens it 
in us. 

Mr. Wordsworth stirs up right thoughts and pure 
wishes within our minds and hearts, clears our dim 
imaginations, and the poetry of our being becomes its 
truth. In a certain sense he may be said to have given 
birth to another creation. The mountains and valleys, 
the rivers and plains, it is true, are the same, and so are 
the trees and smaller plants, and the bright passing 
clouds: to our mere eye they are the same as seen 
yesterday. But a new sense is opened in our hearts, 
and from out this new and delightful reflections are 


204 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


springing up, and running abroad over the earth, and 
twisting themselves about every little thing upon it that 
has life, and uniting its being with our being: with a 
higher meaning do they now live to us, for they have 
received a higher life from us. A moral sense is given 
to things; and the materials of earth, which had hitherto 
seemed made only for homely uses, become teachers to 
our minds and ministers of good to our spirits. 


THE KITTEN AND THE FALLING LEAVES. 

That way look, my infant, lo ! 

What a pretty, baby-show! 

See the kitten on the wall, 

Sporting with the leaves that fall— 

Withered leaves—one, two, and three— 5 

From the lofty elder tree! 

Through the calm and frosty air 
Of this morning bright and fair, 

Eddying round and round they sink 

Softly, slowly; one might think, 10 

From the motions that are made, 

Every little leaf conveyed 
Sylph or fairy hither tending,— 

To this lower world descending, 

Each invisible and mute, 15 

In his wavering parachute. 

—But the kitten, how she starts, 

Crouches, stretches, paws, and darts! 


Analysis.—2. Name the modifiers of baby-show. 
3. on the wall. What does the phrase modify ? 
5. Give the syntax of leaves. 

8. Name the modifiers of morning. 

10. Name the object of think. 

14. Give the syntax of descending. 

15. Give the syntax of each. 

17. Parse But and kitten. 



WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 


205 


First at one, and then its fellow 
Just as light and just as yellow; 
There are many now—now one— 
Now they stop, and there are none; 
What intenseness of desire 
In her upward eye of fire! 

With a tiger-leap, half way 
Now she meets the coming prey, 

Lets it go as fast, and then 
Has it in her power again; 

Now she works with three or four, 
Like an Indian conjuror; 

Quick as he in feats of art, 

Far beyond in joy of heart. 

Were her antics played in the eye 
Of a thousand standers-by, 

Clapping hands with shout and stare, 
What would little Tabby care 
For the plaudits of the crowd ? 
Over-happy to be proud, 
Over-wealthy in the treasure 
Of her own exceeding pleasure! 

’Tis a pretty baby-treat; . 

Nor, I deem, for me unmeet; 

Here, for neither babe nor me, 

Other playmate can I see. 


Analysis. —19. Parse the word fellow. 

20. Give the construction of as, light, and just. 

21. Give the construction of one. 

25. Parse the word wag. 

30. Dispose of the words Like and conjuror. 

31, 32. Write the lines in prose form, supplying all ellipses. 
33. Give the construction of were. 

33-37. Analyze these lines. 

41. Dispose of ’Tis. 

42. What is the meaning of unmeet f 

43. 44. Write these lines in prose. 


20 

25 

30 

35 

40 



206 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Of the countless living things, 

That with stir of feet and wings 
(In the sun or under shade, 

Upon bough or grassy blade), 

And with busy revelings, 

Chirp, and song, and murmurings, 

Made this orchard’s narrow space 
And this vale so blithe a place. 

Multitudes are swept away, 

Never more to breathe the day; 

Some are sleeping; some in bands 
Traveled into distant lands. 

Others slunk to moor and wood, 

Far from human neighborhood ; 

And, among the kinds that keep 
With us closer fellowship, 

With us openly abide, 

All have laid their mirth aside. 

—Where is he, that giddy sprite, 

Blue-cap, with his colors bright, 

Who was blest as bird could be, 

Feeding in the apple tree ; 

Made such wanton spoil and rout, 

Turning blossoms inside out; 

Hung with head toward the ground, 

Fluttered, perched, into a round 
Bound himself, and then unbound: 

Lithest, gaudiest harlequin! 

Prettiest tumbler ever seen! 

Light of heart and light of limb; 

What is now become of him ? 

Analysis. —46-51. Point out the predicate of the sentence. 

52. What is the syntax of place t 

55. Some are sleeping. What figure here ? 

62. Name the figure in the line. 

64. What is the syntax of Blue-cap ? 

68. Parse inside out. 

63-74. Name the modifiers of sprite. 

75. is become. What is the modern form? 


45 

50 

55 

60 

65 

70 

75 



WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 

Lambs that through the mountains went 
Frisking,' bleating merriment, 

When the year was in its prime; 

They are sobered by this time. 

If you look to vale or hill, 

If you listen, all is still, 

Save a little neighboring rill, 

That from out the rocky ground 
Strikes a solitary sound. 

Vainly glitter hill and plain, 

And the air is calm in vain; 

Vainly morning spreads the lure 
Of a sky serene and pure; 

Creature none can she decoy 
Into open sign of joy: 

Is it that they have a fear 
Of the dreary season near ? 

Or that other pleasures be 
Sweeter e’en than gayety ? 

Yet whate’er enjoyments dwell 
In the impenetrable cell 
Of the silent heart which Nature 
Furnishes to every creature; 

Whatsoe’er we feel and know 
Too sedate for outward show, 

Such a light of gladness breaks, 

Pretty kitten! from thy freaks,— 


Analysis. —76-79. Lambs .... They are sobered , etc. 
Would this form be allowable in prose? 

82. Give the construction of save. 

83. Dispose of the expression from out. 

89. Parse the word none. 

91. Give the construction of that. 

93. Why be in this line ? 

94. Dispose of den. 

99. Give the construction of whatsoever. 

100. Parse the word sedate. 


207 


80 


85 


90 


95 


100 


Criticise. 



208 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE, 


Spreads with such a living grace 
O’er my little Laura’s face; 

Yes, the sight so stirs and charms 105 

Thee, baby, laughing in my arms, 

That almost I could repine 
That your transports are not mine, 

That I do not wholly fare 

E’en as ye do, thoughtless pair! 110 

And I will have my careless season 
Spite of melancholy reason— 

Will walk through life in such a way 
That, when time brings on decay, 

Now and then I may possess 115 

Hours of perfect gladsomeness. 

—Pleased by any random toy; 

By a kitten’s busy joy, 

Or an infant’s laughing eye 

Sharing in the ecstasy; 120 

I would fare like that or this, 

Find my wisdom in my bliss; 

Keep the sprightly soul awake, 

And have faculties to take, 

E’en from things by sorrow wrought, 125 

Matter for a jocund thought, * 

Spite of care, and spite of grief, 

To gambol with Life’s falling Leaf. 


Analysis. —107. What does the line modify ? 

108. Parse mine, and show what the line modifies. 

110. Dispose of E’en and as. 

To what does pair here refer ? 

115. Parse the words Now and then. 

117. Give construction of Pleased. What are the modifiers of 
Pleased ? 

121. Dispose of like that. 

123. Dispose of Keep and awake. 

124-126. What are the modifiers of take ? 

127. Dispose of Spite and spite. 

128. Give the syntax of To gambol. What figure in the line? 



CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


209 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 

1. POETS. 

Rev. George Crabbe (1754-1832).—Called by Byron “Na¬ 
ture’s sternest painter, yet the best.” Encouraged in his early 
efforts by Burke, by whose advice he became a clergyman. He 
was a graphic, matter-of-fact poet. Author of The Library, The 
Village, The Parish Register , etc. 

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855).—A poet and banker. Always 
a warm and benevolent friend to struggling merit. Author of 
The Pleasures of Memory, Columbus, Italy, etc. 

James Mogg (1770-1835).—Known as “the Ettrick Shep¬ 
herd.” A Scotch poet of romantic and legendary character. 
Author of Queen's Wake, The Pilgrims of the Sun, and some 
novels. 

James Montgomery (1771-1854). — A journalist and poet. 
Born in Ayrshire, Scotland. Author of Greenland, The Pelican 
Island, The World before the Flood, and many other poems. Was 
for many years editor of the Sheffield Iris. 

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844).—Distinguished both as a poet 
and as a prose-writer. Editor of the New Monthly Magazine for 
ten years.' Author of Pleasures of Hope, Gertrude of Wyoming, 
Hohenlinden, Lord Ullin’s Daughter, Ye Mariners of England, 
LochieVs Warning, etc. 

Felicia Hemans (1793-1835).—Felicia Browne was the daugh¬ 
ter of a merchant. Married Captain Hemans. Began her lit¬ 
erary career at fifteen. Author of The Forest Sanctuary and 
many shorter poems, as The Graves of a Household, Casabianca, 
The Voice of Spring, Landing of the Pilgrims, etc. Author of a 
tragedy also, The Vespers of Palermo. 

Reginald Heber (1783-1826).—Known also as Bishop Heber. 
Educated at Oxford. Was bishop of Calcutta. Author of 
From Greenland's Icy Mountains and many other beautiful 
hymns. 

Henry Kirke White (1785-1806).—The son of a butcher. His 
chief poem is called Clifton. Died from over-work at the age 
of twenty-one. 

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822).—A brilliant lyric poet. 
Was a baronet’s son. Wrote two novels while yet a schoolboy. 

14 


210 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Was expelled from Oxford for atheism. Author of Queen Mab, 
Alasior, Prometheus Unbound, The Cenci, The Skylark, The Cloud , 
The Sensitive Plant, etc. Was drowned in the Bay of Spezzia, 
Italy. 

John Keats (1795-1820).—A highly imaginative poet. Died 
at the age of twenty-four. His chief poems are Endymion, 
Hyperion, The Eve of St. Agnes, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to a 
Nightingale. 

Bryan Waller Procter (1790-1874).—Known also as “Barry 
Cornwall.” Educated at Harrow. A schoolfellow of Byron. 
Became a barrister-at-law. Was both a lyric and a dramatic 
poet. Author of A Sicilian Story, The Flood of Thessaly, Miran- 
dola, etc. 

Robert Pollok (1799-1827).—Was a theological student. Au¬ 
thor of The Course of Time, once a very popular sacred epic. 

Thomas Hood (1798-1845).—The son of a London bookseller. 
A great wit and humorist. His best poems are Eugene Aram’s 
Dream, The Song of a Shirt, The Bridge of Sighs, Plea of the 
Midsummer Fairies. 


2. DRAMATISTS. 

Joanna Baillie (1762-1851)—A writer of many dramas, also of 
Scottish songs. The only one of her many plays -which was put 
on the stage is De Montfort. 

James Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862).—A distinguished dram¬ 
atist. The son of an English teacher of elocution. Wrote 
plays when but twelve years old. Was also an actor. Became 
a teacher of elocution and grammar. His chief dramas are 
Virginias, William Tell, The Hunchback, The Wife, The Beggar 
of Bethnal Green, etc. 

3. PROSE-WRITERS. 

1. Historians: 

John Lingard (1771-1851).—Author' of History of England. 
Was a Boman Catholic priest. Author also of The Antiquities 
of the Anglo-Saxon Church. 

Henry Hallam (1778-1859).—Educated at Eton and Oxford. 
One of the most correct of historians. Author of View of Eu¬ 
rope during the Middle Ages, The Constitutional History of Eng¬ 
land, and An Introduction to the Literature of Europe. 


CONTEMPORANEO US WRITERS. 211 


2. Novelists: 

Frances Burney, Countess d’Arblay (1752-1840).—Daugh¬ 
ter of Dr. Burney. Her best novel is Evalina. Wrote also 
Cecilia. Married Count d’Arblay, a French refugee. 

Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849).—Was taught chiefly by her 
father, who was the author of several works on education and 
engineering. Her chief works are Castle Rackrent, Belinda, 
Popular Tales, Tales of a Fashionable Life, and The Parent's As¬ 
sistant. 

John Galt (1779-1839).—A Scotch novelist. Was a student 
of law, a writer for the stage, a merchant, and, lastly, a novelist. 
Wrote Ayrshire Legatees, The Annals of a Parish, The Last of the 
Lairds, etc. 

v Jane Austen (1775-1817).—A clergyman’s daughter. Wrote 
Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, etc. 

Frances Trollope (1778-1863).—The daughter of an English 
clergyman. Began her career as a writer in 1832 with a satire 
entitled The Domestic Manners of the Americans. Wrote The 
Vicar of Wrexhall, The Widow Barnaby, The Ward of Thorpq 
Combe, etc. 

Mary Russell Mitford (1786-1855).—Daughter of Dr. Mitford, 
whom she supported in later life by the earnings of her pen. 
Author of Our Village, Belford Regis, Stories of American Life, etc. 

Frederick Marryat (1792-1848).—A captain in the Koyal 
Navy. His best novels are pictures of English sailor-life. 
Author of Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful, Midshipman Easy, New¬ 
ton Forster, etc. 

Mrs. Amelia Opie (1769-1853).—Wife of the painter Opie. 
Author of a number of novels of a domestic character. Wrote 
Father and Daughter, Tales of the Heart, Temper, etc. 

3. Essayists and Critics: 

William Cobbett (1762-1835).—At first a field-laborer, then a 
soldier. Became a member of Parliament. His chief works 
are Rural Rides, Cottage Economy, and some works on America. 

William Hazlitt (1778-1830).—Originally a painter, but chose 
literature as his profession. Was a critic of great brilliancy 
and refinement. Wrote Life of Napoleon, Characters of Shake¬ 
speare's Plays, Table Talk, Lectures on the English Poets. 


212 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832).—An historian, a critic, and 
a statesman. A brilliant writer of essays' on political and his¬ 
torical subjects. Much of his writing was done for cyclopaedias. 

Sydney Smith (1771-1845).—A brilliant wit. Was a tutor in 
Edinburgh, then a London preacher, then a rector in Yorkshire, 
and lastly a canon of St. Paul’s. The first editor and one of the 
founders of the Edinburgh Review, of which he wrote the chief 
literary criticisms. Became afterward a Scottish judge, and re¬ 
mained on the bench almost to the time of his death. 

Robert Southey (1774—1843).—A laborious and industrious 
writer of both prose and poetry. Was known as one of the 
Lake School of poets. Became poet-laureate in 1813. His 
best prose works are Life of Nelson, A History of Brazil, Life 
of Cowper, Life of Chatterton, Life of Wesley, Life of H. Kirke 
White. His best poem is The Gurse of Kehama. 

Prof. John Wilson (1785-1854).—Educated at Oxford. Be¬ 
came Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh. Was both 
a poet and an essayist. Known as “Christopher North” in 
.Blackwood’s Magazine. Author of Nodes Ambrosiance and Lights 
and Shadows of Scottish Life. 

Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859).—Educated at Eton and Ox¬ 
ford. A very eloquent writer. Author of The Confessions of an 
Opium-Eater, Suspira de Profundis, and many valuable essays. 

Charles Lamb (1775-1834).—A schoolfellow of Coleridge. 
Wrote a number of graceful essays for the London Magazine 
entitled Essays by Elia, on which his chief fame rests. 

J. G. Lockhart (1794-1854).—Son-in-law of Sir Walter Scott. 
For a time editor of the London Quarterly Review. Wrote Life 
of Scott. 

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864).—A writer of both prose 
and poetry. Author of Imaginary Conversations and a number 
of poems. 

Leigh Hunt (1784-1859).—Wrote both prose and poetry. His 
style was both picturesque and graceful. His chief poems are 
The Story of Rimini, The Palfrey, and A Legend of Florence. His 
prose consists of essays, sketches, and memoirs. 

Isaac Disraeli (1766-1848).—Author of The Curiosities of Lit¬ 
erature, The Amenities of Literature, Calamities and Quarrels of 
Authors, and other works of a similar character. 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


213 


Home Tooke (1736-1812).—Son of a London poulterer. Was 
tried for high treason in 1794. Author of Epea Pteroenta; or, 
The Diversions of Purley. 

Lord Brougham (1779-1868).—A great scholar, statesman, 
orator, and writer. Author of Observations on Light, Statesmen 
of the Reign of George III., England under the House of Lan¬ 
caster, etc. 

4. Scientific Writers: 

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832).—A prominent writer on politi¬ 
cal science. The son of a London solicitor. Spent most of his 
life in writing on law and politics. 

Dugald Stewart (1753-1828).—Born in Edinburgh. Became 
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. 
Author of The Philosophy of the Human Mind, A View of the 
Active and Moral Powers of Man, and Outlines of Moral Phil¬ 
osophy. 

Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829).—Was a distinguished chemist. 
Inventor of the safety-lamp. Wrote many articles for the Royal 
Society. Author also of Salmonia; or, Days of Fly-Fishing, 
Consolations in Travel, etc. 

Sir John Herschel (1792-1871).—An eminent scientific man. 
Educated at Cambridge. Author of A Treatise on Sound, Dis¬ 
course on Natural Philosophy, Outlines of Astronomy. 

5. Theologians: 

Adam Clarke (1760-1832.)—A renowned Oriental scholar and 
biblical critic and commentator. His chief works are A Com¬ 
mentary on the Bible and a Bibliographical Dictionary. 

Robert Hall (1764-1831).—A distinguished Baptist preacher. 
His chief literary works are An Apology for the Freedom of the 
Press and a Sermon on Modern Infidelity. 

Dr. Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847).—The ablest and most 
distinguished Scottish divine of his period. Became Professor 
of Moral Philosophy in the United College, and then Professor 
of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh. Author of Nat¬ 
ural Theology, Evidences of Christianity, Moral Philosophy, Astro¬ 
nomical Discourses, etc. 


VIII. 

THE VICTOBIAH AGE. 


1830 to the Present Time. 

Reigns of William IV. and Queen Victoria. 

No era in the history of the English nation has been 
more prolific of great writers in nearly all departments 
of literature than has this. With the opening of the 
Victorian Age there was a general change in the modes 
of thought and a general forward movement in favor of 
education, not only in England, but also in the United 
States. No epoch in history shows greater enlighten¬ 
ment. The first public grant in favor of education in 
England was made in 1833, and since that time these 
grants have been regularly made, and the intelligence 
of the English people has been greatly advanced. The 
number of readers has also correspondingly increased, 
and with them the number of thinkers and authors. 
The character of the literature has also in a measure 
changed, and has become more reflective and scientific 
than that of the preceding or poetic age. 

The chief poets of the age are Tennyson, Mrs. Brown¬ 
ing, and Miss Ingelow. Among the chief prose-writers 
are the historians Macaulay and Froude, the novelists 
Thackeray, Dickens, and George Eliot, and the essayist 
Carlyle. 


214 


19. ALFRED TENNYSON, 

Born 1810. 

Alfred Tennyson, who became poet-laureate on the 
death of Wordsworth in 1850, is the great represent¬ 
ative English poet of the Victorian Age. 

Tennyson is the son of a Lincolnshire clergyman. 
He was born in the year 1810. Three brothers—Fred¬ 
erick, Charles, and Alfred—all were poets, but the 
youngest of the three, Alfred, was the only one destined 
to become famous as the representative literary man 
of his age. The first effort that brought him to the 
notice of the public was a poem with which he won the 
Chancellor’s Medal in 1829, while yet an undergraduate 
at Trinity College, Cambridge, his theme being Tim- 
buctoo. A year later a Cornhill publisher announced 
Tennyson’s first volume, entitled Poems , chiefly Isyrical , 
by Alfred Tennyson , in which appeared such gems as 
“ Claribel ” and “ Mariana in the Moated Grange.” But 
the reception with which the volume met was not en¬ 
couraging. Nothing daunted, the poet again came be¬ 
fore the public in 1833, when, in addition to some of 
his former poems, he presented such favorites as “ The 
Miller’s Daughter,” “ The Lotus-Eaters,” and “ The 
Queen of the May.” But again the critics were severe 
and unkind, and during the next nine years the poet 
seemed to preserve silence. In 1842, however, he issued 
two new volumes of poems, in which were such admir¬ 
able productions as “ Locksley Hall,” “ The Gardener’s 
Daughter,” “ Lady Clara Vere de Vere,” and “ Godiva.” 
In 1847, Tennyson published an epic poem in blank 

215 


216 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


verse entitled The Princess: a Medley , which has been 
characterized by critics as graceful and exquisite. 

In 1850 the poet presented a new volume to the pub¬ 
lic, entitled In Memoriam , a collection of one hundred 
and twenty-nine poems; and in 1855 another volume, 
entitled Maud , and Other Poems. 

In 1858, Tennyson published one of his best and 
most extended poems, entitled Idyls of the King , which 
celebrates the adventures of the mythical King Arthur 
and the Knights of the Round Table. To this volume 
was added another of a similar character in 1869, en¬ 
titled The Holy Grail ; and in 1864, between the times 
of publishing the two poems here mentioned, he issued 
a volume entitled Enoch Arden , and Other Poems. 

Tennyson’s best poems are “ Locksley Hall,” In Me¬ 
moriam , The Princess , and Idyls of the King. At the 
present time the poet, who is a man of studious and 
industrious habits, is still living at Petersfield, Hamp¬ 
shire, England. 


CRITICISM BY TAINE. 

Tennyson is a born poet; that is, a builder of airy 
palaces and imaginary castles. But the individual 
passion and absorbing preoccupations which generally 
guide the hands of such men are wanting to him: he 
found in himself no plan of a new edifice; he has built 
after all the rest; he has simply chosen amongst all 
forms the most elegant, ornate, exquisite. Of their 
beauties he has taken but the flower. At most, now 
and then, he has here and there amused himself by 
designing some genuinely English and modern cottage. 
If in this choice of architecture, adopted or restored, we 
look for a trace of him, we shall find it, here and there, 
in some more finely sculptured frieze, in some more 
delicate and graceful sculptured rosework; but we only 


ALFRED TENNYSON. 


217 


find it marked and sensible in the purity and elevation 
of the moral emotion which we carry away with us 
when we quit his gallery of art. 

CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. 

Note. —This poem is by many regarded as Tennyson’s most fa¬ 
mous production. It has for its basis the heroic action of a brigade 
in the battle of Balaklava. As a lyric it is unsurpassed in any lan¬ 
guage. 

I. 

Half a league, half a league, 

Half a league onward, 

All in the valley of death 
Rode the Six Hundred. 

“ Forward, the Light Brigade! 5 

Charge for the guns!” he said; 

Into the valley of death 
Rode the Six Hundred. 

II. 

“ Forward, the Light Brigade!” 

Was there a man dismayed? 10 

Not though the soldier knew 
Some one had blundered: 

Theirs not to make reply, 

Theirs not to reason why, 

Theirs but to do and die; 15 

Into the valley of death 
Rode the Six Hundred. 

Analysis. —1-4. Is the sentence periodic or loose ? 

1. Parse half. 

2. Parse onward. 

. 3. Name the figure in this line. 

5. Supply the ellipsis. 

6. Name the object of said. 

8. Who were the Six Hundred ? 

11. What figure in the line? 

11,12. Supply the ellipsis. 

12. Name the object of knew. 

13-15. Rewrite these clauses. 



218 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


hi. 

Cannon to right of them, 

Cannon to left of them, 

Cannon in front of them, 20 

Volleyed and thundered; 

Stormed at with shot and shell, 

Boldly they rode and well; 

Into the jaws of Death, 

Into the mouth of Hell 25 

Bode the Six Hundred. 

IV. 

Flashed all their sabres bare, 

Flashed as they turned in air, 

Sabring the gunners there, 

Charging an army, while 30 

All the world wondered : 

Plunged in the battery-smoke, 

Bight through the line they broke; 

Cossack and Bussian 

Beeled from the sabre-stroke, 35 

Shattered and sundered: 

Then they rode back—but not, 

Not the Six Hundred. 


Analysis. —21. Name the subjects of volleyed and thundered. 

22. Stormed at, etc. What does the phrase modify ? What figure 
in the line ? 

23. Name modifiers of rode. 

24. jaws of Death. What figure ? 

25. Point out the figure in this line. 

26. Name the modifiers of Rode. 

27. What is the meaning of sabre ? What figure in the line ? * 

28. What is the antecedent of they ? 

29. 30. Sabring, etc.; Charging, etc. What do these phrases modify ? 

30. 31. while, etc. What does the clause modify? 

31. Point out the figure. 

33. Parse Right. Name the antecedent of they. 

36. Shattered and sundered. What do these words modify ? 

38. Not the Six Hundred. Explain. 



ALFRED TENNYSON. 


219 


y. 

Cannon to right of them, 

Cannon to left of them, 

Cannon behind them, 

Volleyed and thundered; 
Stormed at with shot and shell, 
While horse and hero fell, 

They that had fought so well 
Came through the jaws of Death, 
Back from the mouth of Hell, 

All that, was left of them, 

Left of Six Hundred. 

VI. 

When can their glory fade ? 

Oh, the wild charge they made! 

All the world wondered! 

Honor the charge they made, 
Honor the Light Brigade, 

Noble Six Hundred! 


Analysis. —43. Stormed at, etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

44. horse and hero. Explain. 

45. Parse the adverbs in the line. 

46. Point out the figure. 

47. Name the figure in this line. 

48. With what is All in apposition ? Why is that preferable to 
who or which in this line? 

49. Parse the word Hundred. 

50. What figure in the line ? 

51. Point out the figure. 

52. What figure in this line ? 

53. Dispose of the word Honor. Supply the ellipsis in this line. 

54. Supply the ellipsis in this line. 

55. Give the grammatical construction of Noble Six Hundred. 

Give the prosody of this poem. Mention other poems written by 

Tennyson in the capacity of poet-laureate. 

Give the etymology of the word poet-laureate. 

On what does the appointment to the laureateship depend ? 


40 

45 

50 

55 



220 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


THE CHARGE OF THE HEAVY BRIGADE. 

[For study and analysis.'] 

Note. —The charge of the Three Hundred of the Heavy Brigade, 
under Major-General Sir James Y. Scarlett, was as brilliant and heart¬ 
stirring a dash as that of the -Light Brigade, and more fortunate. 
Moving along the valley with some seven hundred troopers, well 
within the British lines, as he supposed, he was astonished to see a 
body of three thousand Russian horse emerge along the top of the 
ridge half a mile away. Immediately they bore down on his squad¬ 
rons, which were without support, and which, indeed, were so di¬ 
vided that less than three hundred of the Inniskillings and Scots 
Greys were immediately at hand. The Russians drew up to within 
a few hundred yards, and for some unaccountable reason halted, when 
General Scarlett ordered his men to attack, and himself rode forward 
at full pace against the Russian centre. In the movement forward 
he got fifty yards in advance of his men, who were slightly delayed 
in their charge up the hill by the ropes of some tents not yet quite 
struck. Mounted on powerful horses, he and his three attendants— 
Elliott, his aide-de-camp, a trumpeter, and the gigantic orderly She- 
gog—broke through the Russian lines, and his three hundred, fol¬ 
lowing immediately after, did the same. It was impossible by mere 
impact to beat backward up the hill a force ten times as large as their 
own; and so they fought their way through it, jammed in the mel4e 
of men and horses, saved by their superior height and reach of arm, 
smiting with one hand and with the other dragging the riders from 
their seats. Then they found the enemy faced about to their rear, 
and again they fought their way through, back to where they started. 
Meanwhile, the wings of the Russians, which had been extended to 
right and left, and had been closed to embrace the fated British as in 
the hug of a bear, were now smitten by the remainder of the Heavy 
Brigade, which had been hurried along to aid their engaged com¬ 
rades. Their onset, addeft. to the confusion already caused, threw 
the Russians into utter disorder, and they, hurried confusedly up and 
over the hill, leaving the field in the hands of the British .—New 
York Independent. 


ALFRED TENNYSON. 221 

I. 

The charge of the gallant Three Hundred, the Heavy Brigade! 
Down the hill, down the hill, thousands of Russians, 
Thousands of horsemen, drew to the valley—and stayed. 

For Scarlett and Scarlett’s Three Hundred were riding by 
When the points of the Russian lances broke in on the sky; 
And he called, “ Left wheel into line!” and they wheeled and 
obeyed. 

Then he looked at the host that had halted, he knew not why, 
And he turned half round, and he bade his trumpeter sound 
“ To the charge!” and he rode on ahead, as he waved his blade 
To the gallant Three Hundred, whose glory will never die: 

“ Follow, and up the hill!” 

Up the hill, up the hill, followed the Heavy Brigade. 

ii. 

The trumpet, the gallop, the charge, and the might of the 
fight! 

Down the hill slowly thousands of Russians 
Drew to the valley and halted at last on the height, 

With a wing pushed out to the left, and a wing to the right. 
But Scarlett was far on ahead, and he dashed up alone 
Through the great gray slope of men ; 

And he whirled his sabre; he held his own 
Like an Englishman there and then ; 

And the three that were nearest him followed with force, 
Wedged themselves in between horse and horse, 

Fought for their lives in the narrow gap they had made, 

Four amid thousands; and up the hill, up the hill, 

Galloped the gallant Three Hundred, the Heavy Brigade. 

ill. 

Fell like a cannot-shot, 

Burst like a thunderbolt, 

Crashed like a hurricane, 

Broke through the mass from below, 

Drove through the midst of the foe, 

Plunged up and down, to and fro, 

Rode, flashing blow upon blow, 


5 

l 

10 

15 

20 

25 

30 


222 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Brave Inniskillings and Greys, 

Whirling their sabres in circles of light. 

And some of us, all in a maze, 

Who were held for a while from the fight, 

And were only standing at gaze 
When the dark-muffled Russian crowd 
Folded its wings from the left and the right, 

And rolled them around like a cloud— 

Oh! mad for the charge and the battle were we, 

When our own good red-coats sank from sight, 

Like drops of blood in a dark gray sea ; 

And we turned to each other, muttering, all dismayed, 

“ Lost are the gallant Three Hundred, the Heavy Brigade!” 

IV. 

But they rode like victors and lords 
Through the forests of lances and swords; 

In the heart of the Russian hordes, 

They rode, or they stood at bay ; 

Struck with the sword-hand and slew; 

Down with the bridle-hand drew 
The foe from the saddle, and threw 
Under foot there in the fray; 

Raged like a storm, or stood like a rock 
In the wave of a stormy day; 

Till suddenly, shock upon shock, 

Staggered the mass from without; 

For our men galloped up with a cheer and a shout, 

And the Russians surged and wavered and reeled 
Up the hill, up the hill, up the hill, out of the field, 

Over the brow and away. 

v. 

Glory to each and to all, and the charge that they made! 
Glory to all the Three Hundred, the Heavy Brigade I 


35 

40 

45 

50 

55 

60 


20. MRS. ELIZABETH (BARRETT) BROWNING, 

1809 - 1861 . 

Mrs. Browning, formerly Miss Barrett, was born in 
Hertfordshire, England, in 1809. It is said that she 
began to compose verses as early as the age of ten, 
and, receiving encouragement from her friends, she 
issued a volume entitled An Essay on Mind, and Other 
Poems , when but seventeen years of age. Her first suc¬ 
cessful poem, however, which appeared in 1833, was 
her translation of Prometheus Bound , from the Greek 
dramatist iEschylus. From 1838 to 1844 she pub¬ 
lished a number of poems, and in the latter year her 
writings were collected and published in two volumes. 
About the year 1840 the bursting of a blood-vessel con¬ 
fined her to her room for a twelvemonth, and her failing 
health compelled her to seek a milder climate. She 
accordingly went to Torquay. In 1846 she married 
Robert Browning, himself a poet of great merit, and 
they made Florence their permanent home. Mrs. 
Browning soon found herself sympathizing deeply with 
the cause of the suffering Italians, and, witnessing the 
revolutionary outbreak of 1848, she found an excellent 
theme for her next important poem, Casa Guidi Windows, 
which gives the impressions of the writer upon events 
in Tuscany as she witnessed them from the windows 
of her own house, the Casa Guidi in Florence. 

Mrs. Browning’s greatest poem is Aurora Leigh, a 
poetical novel in blank verse, which appeared in 1856. 
It consists largely of an expression of her decided opin- 

223 


224 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


ions on the nature and mission of woman. The poem 
is a singular mixture of prose and poetry, in which pas¬ 
sion and sentiment are intermingled with metaphysical 
discussions and commonplace conversations. Her last 
publication was a volume entitled Poems before Congress , 
issued in 1860, which also bears evidence of her great 
interest in Italy and its people. Few writers have ex¬ 
ercised so healthful an influence over our literature as 
has Mrs. Browning. Indeed, there is scarcely a senti¬ 
ment of all that she has so gracefully written which 
any one would wish omitted. 

Mrs. Browning died on the 29th of June, 1861, at her 
home in Casa Guidi, Florence. A marble tablet in front 
of the house, erected by the grateful people of Florence, 
records the fact that here “ wrote and died Elizabeth 
Barrett Browning, who, by her song, created a golden 
link between Italy and England.” 

CRITICISM BY CHAMBERS. 

The highest place among our modern poetesses must 
be claimed for Mrs. Browning, formerly Miss Barrett. 
In purity and loftiness of sentiment and feeling, and in 
intellectual power, she is excelled only by Tennyson, 
whose best works, it is evident, she had carefully studied. 
Her earlier style reminds us more of Shelley, but this 
arises from similarity of genius and classical tastes, not 
imitation. “ Poetry,” said Mrs. Browning, “ has been as 
serious a thing to me as life itself; and life has been a 
very serious thing. I never mistook pleasure for the 
final cause of poetry, nor leisure for the hour of the 
poet. I have done my work so far as work—not as mere 
hand- and head-work, apart from the personal being, but 
as the completest expression of that being to which I 
could attain.” 


MBS. BROWNING. 


225 


COWPER’S GRAVE. 

Note. —This is one of Mrs. Browning’s earliest poems, but also 
one of the most finished of her productions. It is written in lier 
best style. 

It is a place where poets crowned may feel the heart’s decaying, 

It is a place where happy saints may weep amid their praying. 
Yet let the grief and humbleness as low as silence languish: 
Earth surely now may give her calm to whom she gave her 
anguish. 

O poets I from a maniac’s tongue was poured the deathless 5 
singing; 

O Christians! at your cross of hope a hopeless hand was clinging; 

O men! this man in brotherhood, your weary paths beguiling, 
Groaned inly while he taught you peace, and died while ye 
were smiling! 

And now, what time ye all may read through dimming tears 
his story, 

How-discord on the music fell, and darkness on the glory, 10 
And how when, one by one, sweet sounds and wandering lights 
departed, 

He wore no less a loving face because so broken-hearted, 

He shall be strong to sanctify the poet’s high vocation, 

And bow the meekest Christian down in meeker adoration. 

Nor ever shall he be, in praise, by wise or good forsaken, 15 

Named softly as the household name of one whom God hath 
taken. 


Analysis.—3. What figure in the line ? Parse silence. 

4. Earth .... may give , etc. What figure ? 

5. a maniac’s tongue. To what fact in the poet Cowper’s life does 
this refer ? 

9. what time , the time in which. 

11. Give the construction of one by one. 

14. Give grammatical construction of bow. 

16. Named softly , etc.; that is, he should be named softly, etc. 
Give grammatical construction of Named. 

15 



226 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


With quiet sadness and no gloom I learn to think upon him— 

With meekness that is gratefulness to God whose heaven hath 
won him, 

Who suffered once the madness-cloud to His own love to 
blind him, 

But gently led the blind along where breath and bird could 20 
find him, 

And wrought within his shattered brain such quick poetic 
senses 

As hills have language for, and stars harmonious influences. 

The pulse of dew upon the grass kept his within its number, 

And silent shadows from the trees refreshed him like a slumber. 

Wild, timid hares were drawn from woods to share his home- 25 
caresses, 

Uplooking to his human eyes with sylvan tendernesses. 

The very world, by God’s constraint, from falsehood’s ways re¬ 
moving, 

Its women and its men became, beside him, true and loving. 

And though, in blindness, he remained unconscious of that 
guiding, 

And things provided came without the sweet sense of providing, 30 

He testified this solemn truth, while frenzy desolated— 

Nor man nor nature satisfied, whom only God created.' 

Like a sick child that knoweth not his mother whilst she 
blesses, 

And drops upon his burning brow the coolness of her kisses— 


Analysis. —19. Name the antecedents of Who, also of His. 

20. breath and bird. What figure ? Give the meaning. 

22. Give the grammatical construction of influences. 

24. Parse the words like and slumber. 

26. Point out the figure in this line. 

29. in blindness , etc. Is the expression figurative or literal ? 

33. Give the grammatical construction of Like and child. What 
is the antecedent of That ? 

34. drops . ... the coolness, etc.. What figure ? 



MRS. BROWNING. 


227 


That turns his fevered eyes around—“ My mother! where’s my 35 
mother ?” 

As if such tender words and deeds could come from any other!— 

The fever gone, with leaps of heart he sees her bending o’er 
him, 

Her face all pale from watchful love, the unweary love she 
bore him!— 

Thus woke the poet from the dream his life’s long fever gave 
him, 

Beneath those deep pathetic eyes, which closed in death to save 40 
him. 

Thus ? Oh, not thus / no type of earth could image that awaking, 

Wherein he scarcely heard the chant of seraphs round him 
breaking, 

Or felt the new immortal throb of soul from body parted, 

But felt those eyes alone, and knew —“My Saviour! not deserted!” 

Deserted! Who hath dreamt that when the cross in darkness 45 
rested 

Upon the Victim’s hidden face, no love was manifested ? 

What frantic hands outstretched have e’er the atoning drops 
averted ? 

What tears have washed them from the soul, that one should be 
deserted ? 

Deserted! God could separate from His own essence rather: 

And Adam’s sins have swept between the righteous Son and 50 
Father. 


Analysis.—38. all pale. Parse. Parse also uneasy love. 

39. What is the meaning here of his life's long fever ? (See sketch 
of Cowper.) 

40. What is the meaning of this line ? 

45. Give grammatical construction of Deserted. 

What is the meaning of the cross in darkness rested, etc. ? What 
is the figure ? 

48. Why is one emphasized, and to whom does it refer ? 

50. Give the meaning of this line. 



228 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Yea, once, Immanuel’s orphaned cry his universe hath shaken— 

It went up single, echoless, “ My God, I am forsaken !” 

It went up from the Holy’s lips amid his lost creation, 

That of the lost no son should use those words of desolation! 

That earth’s worst frenzies, marring hope, should mar not hope’s 55 
fruition, 

And I, on Cowper’s grave, should see his rapture in a vision. 

% _ 


Analysis. —51, 52. To what do these lines refer? 

52. What is the antecedent of It ? 

54. What figure in the line ? 

55. What is the meaning of fruition ? 

56. on Cowper’s grave. What does this phrase modify ? 


THE SLEEP. 

Note. —The following are stanzas 5 and 6 from Mrs. Browning’s 
poem, The Sleep. 

O earth, so full of dreary noises ! 

O men, with wailing in your voices ! 

O delved gold, the wailers heap ! 

O strife, O curse, that o’er it fall! 

God strikes a silence through you all, 

And “ giveth His beloved sleep.” 

His dews drop mutely on the hill, 

His cloud above it saileth still, 

Though on its slope men sow and reap. 

More softly than the dew is shed, 

Or cloud is floated overhead, 

“ He giveth His beloved sleep.” 




21. JEAN INGELOW, 


1830 ?-. 

Miss Ingelow, since the death of Mrs. Browning, is 
certainly England’s greatest female poet. By some the 
date of her birth is fixed as 1825, and by others as 1830, 
but since little is known of her private life, these dates 
cannot be considered as authentic. 

Her first success as a writer was won by a volume of 
poems published in England in 1863, and also imme¬ 
diately republished in America. It was received with 
great favor on both sides of the Atlantic, and at once 
won distinction for the author. Since then she has 
issued other volumes of poems, but none have so taken 
hold on the popular heart as her first effort. 

In prose Miss Ingelow has done but little, her chief 
work being a novel, Off the SJcelligs, published in 1872. 
She is author also of an admirable collection of stories 
for children entitled Studies for Stories, among which 
“ Mopsa and the Fairy ” is one of the most charming. 

Miss Ingelow is chiefly a lyric poet, and her poems 
are characterized by a simplicity and gentleness found 
in few compositions. Among her best poems are “Songs 
of Seven,” “ Songs of the Night-Watches,” “ Songs with 
Preludes,” “ High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire,” 
and “Songs on the Voices of Birds.” 

She is still living (1882) in England, and her works 
have had, and still have, an extensive sale in both Eng¬ 
land and America. They have won for their writer a 
degree of popularity seldom conceded to a living author. 

229 



230 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


CRITICISM. 

Nothing appeared from her pen until the year 1863, 
when her little volume, issued under the modest title 
Poems, placed her at once among the foremost writers 
of England. Some of Miss Ingelow’s poems, particu¬ 
larly “ High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire,” are 
characterized by considerable dramatic power, and all 
of them are marked by a simplicity and naturalness 
of language that have helped them to reach the pop¬ 
ular heart and make them favorites with lovers of 
poetry. As a lyric poet Miss Ingelow has written some 
songs of rare merit. Her “ Songs of the Night-Watches ” 
and ‘ c Songs of Seven ”—the latter representing the seven 
epochs in the life of woman—have won for her high dis¬ 
tinction. 


THE MIDDLE WATCH. 

Note. —The following extract is taken from Miss Ingelow’s poem 
entitled “ The Songs of the Night-Watches.” 


I. 

I woke in the night, and the darkness was heavy and deep; 

I had known it was dark in my sleep, 

And I rose and looked out, 

And the fathomless vault was all sparkling, set thick round 
about 

With the ancient inhabiters silent, and wheeling too far 5 
For man’s heart, like a voyaging frigate, to sail, where re¬ 
mote 

In the sheen of their glory they float, 


Analysis.— 4. fathomless vault. What figure ? What does the 
word all modify ? Parse round about. 

5. What is the difference between inhabiters and inhabitants ? 

6. Point out and name t^e figure in this line. 

7. What is meant by sheen? 



JEAN INGELOW. 


231 


Or man’s soul, like a bird, to fly near, of their beams to par¬ 
take, * 

And dazed in their wake 
Drink day that is born of a star. 

I murmured, “ Remoteness and greatness, how deep you are set! 
How afar in the rim of the whole! 

You know nothing of me, nor of man, nor of earth, oh, nor yet 
Of our light-bearer,—drawing the marvelous moons as they 
roll, 

Of our regent, the sun. 

I look on you trembling, and think, in the dark with my soul, 
“How small is our place ’mid the kingdoms and nations of 
God! 

These are greater than we, every one.” 

And there falls a greater fear, and a dread cometh over that 
cries, 

“ O my hope! Is there any mistake ? 

Did He speak ? Did I hear ? Did I listen aright if He spake? 
Did I answer Him duly ? for surely I now am awake, 

If never I woke until now.” 

And a light, baffling wind, that leads nowhither, plays on my 
brow. 

As a sleep, I must think on my day, of my path as untrod, 

Or trodden in dreams, in a dreamland whose coasts are a 
doubt; 

Whose countries recede from my thoughts, as they grope round 
about, 

And vanish, and tell me not how. 

Analysis.—8. Parse the words like and bird. 

8-10. Name the figures in these lines. 

11. What figure in the line? 

What is the object of murmured f 

Give the construction of Remoteness and greatness. 

16. What does trembling modify? 

Name the object of think. 

17. ’ mid. What figure of orthography? 

19. Name the object of cries. 

24. nowhither. Why nowhither , rather than nowhere f 
27. Name the antecedent of they. 


10 

15 

20 

25 



232 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE . 


Be kind to our darkness, O Fashioner dwelling in light, 

And feeding the lamps of the sky; 30 

Look down upon this one, and let it be sweet in Thy sight, 

I pray Thee, to-night. 

Oh watch whom Thou madest to dwell on its soil, Thou Most 
High! 

For this is a world full of sorrow (there may be but one); 

Keep watch o’er its dust, else Thy children for aye are un- 35 
done, 

For this is a world where we die. 


II. 

With that, a still voice in my spirit that moved and that 
yearned 

(There fell a great calm while it spake), 

I heard it erewhile, but the noises of life are so loud 

That sometimes it dies in the cry of the street and the 40 
crowd; 

To the simple it cometh,—the child, or asleep or awake ; 

And they know not from whence; of its nature the wise never 
learned 

By his wisdom ; its secret the worker ne’er earned 

By his toil; and the rich among men never bought with his 
gold; 

Nor the times of its visiting monarchs controlled, 45 

Nor the jester put down with his jeers 

(For it moves where it will), nor its season the aged discern 

By thought, in the ripeness of years. 

O elder than reason, and stronger than will! 

A voice, when the dark world is still: 50 


Analysis.—29. 0 Fashioner. To whom is allusion made here ? 
30. feeding the lamps. What figure ? 

35. o’er. Explain the use of the apostrophe here. 

Dispose of the word else. 

41. or asleep. What is the usual form? 

42. What is the antecedent of they ? 

49. 0 elder. Why elder rather than older after 0 f 

50. What figure in the line ? 



JEAN INGEL OW. 


233 


Whence cometh it? Father Immortal, Thou knowest! and 
we— 

We are sure of that witness, that sense, which is sent us of 
Thee; 

For it moves, and it yearns, in its fellowship mighty and 
•dread, 

And let down to our hearts it is touched by the tears that we 
shed; 

It is more than all meanings and over all strife; 55 

On its tongue are the laws of our life, 

And it counts up the times of the dead. 

hi. 

I will fear you, O stars, nevermore ; 

I have felt it! Go on, while the world is asleep, 

Golden islands, fast moored in God’s infinite deep. 60 

Hark, hark to the words of sweet fashion, the harpings of 
yore! 

How they sang to Him, seer and saint, in the far-away lands, 

“ The heavens are the work of Thy hands; 

They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; 

Yea, they all shall wax old; 65 

But Thy throne is established, O God, and Thy years are 
made sure; 

They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure,— 

They shall pass like a tale that is told.” 

Doth He answer, the Ancient of Days ? 

Will He speak in the tongue and the fashion of men ? 70 

(Hist! hist! while the heaven-hung multitudes shine in His 
praise, 

Analysis.—52. Why is we repeated ? 

53. Dispose of the words mighty and dread. 

54. Give the grammatical construction of lei . 

57. Give the grammatical construction of counts up. 

60. Golden islands, etc. What figure ? 

62-68. Name the entire object of sang. 

65. What is the meaning of wax old ? 

68. What figure in the line ? Parse like and tale. 

69. Give the construction of Ancient. 



234 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

His language of old.) Nay, He spoke with them first; it 
was then 

That they lifted their eyes to His throne: 

“ They shall call on Me, ‘ Thou art our Father, our God, Thou 
alone!’ 

For I made them, I led them in deserts and desolate*ways: 

I have found them a Ransom Divine; 

I have loved them with love everlasting, the children of men; 
I swear by Myself, they are Mine.” 


Analysis. —72. Give the grammatical construction of Nay. Name 
the modifier of it. 

74. Of what is this line a modifier ? 

76. Why Ransom Divine with capital letters? 

77. In what case is children f 

78. Parse the word Mine. 


WORK. 

Like coral insects multitudinous 
The minutes are whereof our life is made. 

They build it up as in the deep’s blue shade 
It grows, it comes to light, and then and thus 
For both there is an end. The populous 

Sea-blossoms close, our minutes that have paid 
Life’s debt of work are spent; the work is laid 
Before our feet that shall come after us. 

We may not stay to watch if it will speed, 

The bard if on some luter’s string his song 
Live sweetly yet; the hero if his star 
Doth shine. Work is its own best earthly meed, 
Else have we none more than the sea-born throng 
Who wrought those marvelous isles that bloom afar. 


75 




/ 


22 . THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, 

1800 - 1859 . 

Lord Macaulay, the most brilliant historical writer 
of the Victorian Age, though of Scotch descent, was 
born, October 25, 1880, in Leicestershire, England, at 
Rothley Temple, the house of his uncle, Thomas Bab- 
ington, Esq., a wealthy merchant, from whom he took 
his name. His father was Zachary Macaulay, a man 
who spent much of his life in the island of Jamaica 
exerting himself to suppress the African slave-trade. 

At the age of nineteen Macaulay entered Trinity Col¬ 
lege, Cambridge, where he gained two prizes for poems 
—one, in 1819, on Pompeii; and another, two years later, 
on Evening . He took his degree, B. A., in 1822, and be¬ 
came a Fellow of the college in 1824, taking his degree, 
M. A., in 1825. He had already distinguished himself 
by his contributions to Knight's Quarterly Magazine , and 
in August, 1825, his celebrated article on Milton ap¬ 
peared in the Edinburgh Review. This may be con¬ 
sidered as the starting-point of Macaulay’s famous lit¬ 
erary career. The article at once arrested the attention 
of the reading public, and was regarded as the promise 
of still more brilliant productions from its author’s pen. 

Having studied law at Lincoln’s Inn, Macaulay was 
called to the bar in 1826, and in 1827 Lord Lyndhurst 
appointed him commissioner of bankruptcy. Three 
years afterward he became a member of Parliament for 
Caine, and from 1832 to 1834 he was a member for 
Leeds. After this he went to India as the legal adviser 
to the Supreme Council of Calcutta, where he remained 

235 


236 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


until 1839. Having returned to England, he again be¬ 
came a member of Parliament, and for eight years repre¬ 
sented Edinburgh. In 1847 he was defeated, and his 
attention was turned more directly again to literature. 
In 1849 the first two volumes of his famous History of 
England w r ere given to the public, by whom they were 
received with great enthusiasm. The plan of the His¬ 
tory , as the author expresses it, is given as follows: “I 
purpose to write the history of England from the acces¬ 
sion of King James II. down to a time which is within 
the memory of men still living.” The author, however, 
never finished the work. It was brought down only to 
the death of William III., when the author’s own death, 
on the 18th of December, 1859, ended his labor. 

Macaulay was returned to Parliament by Edinburgh 
in 1852, but in 1856 he was made Baron Macaulay of 
Rothley Temple, and he became a member of the House 
of Lords—the only man in England who was ever made 
a lord on account of the fame he had won as a writer. 

Macaulay wrote not only prose, but also poetry. 
Among his chief poems are Lays of Ancient Rome and a 
number of ballads. His chief prose works are his Essays 
and History of England. 


CRITICISM BY E. A. FREEMAN. 

Macaulay is a model of style—of style not merely as 
a kind of literary luxury, but of style in the practical 
aspect. When I say he is a model of style, I do not 
mean that it is wise in any writer to copy Macaulay’s 
style—to try to write something that might be mistaken 
for Macaulay’s writing. So to do is not to follow in the. 
steps of a great writer, but merely to imitate his out¬ 
ward manner. So to do is not the part of a disciple, 
but the part of an ape. But every one who wishes to 


THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. 


237 


write clear and pure English will do well to become, 
not Macaulay’s ape, but Macaulay’s disciple. Every 
writer of English will do well not only to study Macau¬ 
lay’s writings, but to bear them in his mind, and very 
often to ask himself, not whether his writing is like 
Macaulay’s writing, but whether his writing is such as 
Macaulay would have approved. 


THE PURITANS. 

Note. —This sketch, which shows some of the most prominent 
characteristics of Macaulay’s admirable style, is taken from his 
article on Milton, published in the Edinburgh Review for August, 
1825. It is an extract from the article which, though written by 
Macaulay when but twenty-five years of age, and since characterized 
in his own .words as being “ overloaded with gaudy ornament,” first 
won for him fame as an author. 

We would speak first of the Puritans, the most remark¬ 
able body of men, perhaps, which the world has ever 
produced. The odious and ridiculous parts of their 
character lie on the surface. He that runs may read 
them; nor have there been wanting attentive and ma- 5 
licious observers to point them out. For many years 
after the Restoration they were the theme of unmeas¬ 
ured invective and derision. They were exposed to the 
utmost licentiousness of the press and of the stage at the 


Notes. —1. Puritans. The Pur¬ 
itans were a religious sect 
who were opposed to all 
forms in religion and who 
believed in a simpler mode 
of worship. The word is 
derived from pure, and it 


was originally applied as a 
nickname. 

7. The Restoration. This refers 
to the restoration of the 
House of Stuart by placing 
King Charles II. on the 
throne in the year 1660. 


Analysis.—6. To what does them refer ? 
7. What is the antecedent of they ? 





238 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


time when the press'and the stage were most licentious. 
They were not men of letters; they were as a body un¬ 
popular; they could not defend themselves, and the 
public would not take them under its protection. They 
were therefore abandoned, without reserve, to the tender 
mercies of the satirists and dramatists. The ostentatious 
-simplicity of their dress, their sour aspect, their nasal 
twang, their stiff posture, their long graces, their Hebrew 
names, their scriptural phrases which they introduced 
on ever}^ occasion, their contempt of human learning, 
their detestation of polite amusements, were indeed fair 
game for the laughers. But it is not from the laughers 
alone that the philosophy of history is to be learned. 
And he who approaches this subject should carefully 
guard against the influence of that potent ridicule which 
has already misled so many excellent writers. 

Those who roused the people to resistance, who directed 
their measures through a long series of eventful years, 
who formed, out of the most unpromising materials, the 
finest army that Europe had ever seen, who trampled 
dowm king, Church, and aristocracy, who^ in the short 
intervals of domestic sedition and rebellion, made the 
name of England terrible to every nation on the face 
of the earth,—were no vulgar fanatics. Most of their 
absurdities were mere external badges, like the signs 
of freemasonary or the dresses of friars. We regret 
that these badges were not more attractive. We regret 
that a body to whose courage and talents mankind has 
owed inestimable obligations had not the lofty elegance 
which distinguished some of the adherents of Charles I., 

Analysis. —10. the press and the stage. What figure? 

11,12. What figure in these lines ? What is meant by men of letters? 

20. Name the subjects of were. 

21, 22. Name the subject of the sentence, and give the modifiers. 

34. Parse like and signs. 


10 

15 

20 

25 

30 

35 



THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. 239 

or the easy good-breeding for which the court of Charles 
II. was celebrated. But if we must make our choice, we 
shall, like Bassanio in the play, turn from the specious 
caskets which contain only the death’s head and the 
fool’s head, and fix our choice on the plain leaden chest 
which conceals the treasure. 

The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a 
peculiar character from the daily contemplation of su¬ 
perior beings and eternal interests. Not content with 
acknowledging in general terms an over-ruling Provi¬ 
dence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will 
of the Great Being for whose power nothing was too 
vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. To 
know Him, to serve Him, to enjoy Him, was with them 
the great end of existence. They rejected with contempt 
the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted 
for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching 
occasional glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring 
veil, they aspired to gaze full on the intolerable bright¬ 
ness, and to commune with Him face to face. Hence 
originated their contempt for terrestrial distinctions. 
The difference between the greatest and meanest of 
mankind seemed to vanish when compared with the 
boundless interval which separated the whole race from 
Him on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. 
They recognized no title to superiority but His favor; 


Analysis. —40, 41. the court of Charles II. What figure? 

42. Parse like and Bassanio. 

43. What is the meaning of death 1 s head ? 

48. What does the phrase not content , etc. modify ? 

52-54. To know .... existence. Analyze. What figure of speech ? 
56-59. What figure in the sentence ? 

61, 62. the greatest and meanest of mankind. Is the expression correct 
when referring to two? 

65. Dispose of hut. 


40 

45 

50 

55 

60 

65 



240 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

and, confident of that favor, they despised all the ac¬ 
complishments and all the dignities of the world. If 
they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers 
and poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of God. 
If their names were not found in the registers of heralds, 
they felt assured that they were recorded in the Book of 
Life. If their steps were not accompanied by a splendid 
train of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge 
over them. 

Their palaces were houses not made with hands; their 
diadems, crowns of glory which should never fade away. 
On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they 
looked down with contempt; for they esteemed them¬ 
selves rich in a more precious treasure and eloquent in 
a more sublime language—nobles by the right of an ear¬ 
lier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier 
hand. The very meanest of them was a being to whose 
fate a mysterious and terrible importance belonged—on 
whose slightest actions the spirits of light and darkness 
looked with anxious interest—who had been destined, 
before heaven and earth were created, to enjoy a felicity 
which should continue when heaven and earth should 
have passed away. 

Events which short-sighted politicians ascribed to 
earthly causes had been ordained on his account. For 
his sake empires had risen and flourished and decayed. 

Analysis. —67-74. What figure predominates in these lines? 

69. oracles of God. What is the meaning? 

70. heralds. These were officers whose duty it was to keep a register 
of the arms of the nobility. 

71. 72. Book of Life. What figure? 

79. more precious treasure. What is referred to? 

81. Explain the use of the terms creation and imposition. 

82-88. Analyze the sentence. 

90. What is the antecedent of his ? 

90, 91. For his sake .... decayed. What figure? 


70 

75 

80 

85 

90 



THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. 


241 


For his sake the Almighty had proclaimed His will by 
the pen of the evangelist and the harp of the prophet. 

He had been rescued by no common deliverer from the 
grasp of no common foe. He had been ransomed by 95 
the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood of no earth¬ 
ly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun had been 
darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead 
had arisen, that all Nature had shuddered at the suffer¬ 
ings of her expiring God ! 100 

Thus the Puritan was made up of two different men— 
the one all self-abasement, penitence, gratitude, passion; 
the other proud, calm, inflexible, sagacious. He pros¬ 
trated himself in the dust before his Maker, but he set 
his foot on the neck of his king. In his devotional re- 105 
tirement he prayed with convulsions and groans and 
tears. He was half-maddened by glorious or terrible 
illusions. He heard the lyres of angels or the tempt¬ 
ing whispers of fiends. He caught a^gleam of the Bea¬ 
tific Vision, or woke screaming from dreams of everlast-110 
ing fire. Like Vane, he thought himself entrusted with 
the sceptre of the millennial year. Like Fleetwood, he 
cried in the bitterness of his soul that God had hid His 
face from him. 


Notes. —111. Vane. This was 
Sir Henry Vane, who was 
a member of the Council 
of State, and who in the 


Civil War was on the side 
of Parliament. 

112. Fleetwood was the son-in- 
law of Cromwell. 


Analysis. —92, 93. For his sake .... prophet. What figure ? 
97-100. Name the modifiers of It. What figures in these lines? 
101. Parse was made up. 

101-103. What figure in the sentence ? 

108. illusions. Notice that these illusions are exemplified in the 
next two sentences. 

108, 109. He heard the lyres of angels, etc. What figure? 

109, 110. Beatific Vision . What is meant by this ? 

111. Give the grammatical construction of Like and Vane. 

16 





242 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


But when he took his seat in the council or girt on 115 
his sword for war, these tempestuous workings of the 
soul had left no perceptible trace behind them. People 
who saw nothing of the godly but their uncouth visages, 
and heard nothing from them but their groans and their 
whining hymns, might laugh at them. But those had 120 
little reason to laugh who encountered them in the hall 
of debate or in the field of battle. These fanatics 
brought to civil and military affairs a coolness of judg¬ 
ment and an immutability of purpose which some 
writers have thought inconsistent with their religious 125 
zeal, but which were in fact the necessary effects of it. 

The intensity of their feelings on one subject made 
them tranquil on every other. One overpowering sen¬ 
timent had subjected to itself pity and hatred, ambi¬ 
tion and fear. Death had lost its terrors, and pleasure 130 
its charms. They had their smiles and their tears, 
their raptures and their sorrows, but not for the things 
of this world. Enthusiasm had made them stoics, had 
cleared their minds from every vulgar passion and prej¬ 
udice, and raised them above the influence of danger 135 
and corruption. It sometimes might lead them to pur¬ 
sue unwise ends, hut never to choose unwise means. 
They went through the world like Sir Artegal’s iron 
man Talus with his flail, crushing and trampling down 
oppressors; mingling with human beings, but having 140 
neither part nor lot in human infirmities; insensible to 
fatigue, to pleasure, and to pain; not to be pierced by 
any weapon, not to be withstood by any barrier. 


Note.—138. Sir Artegal’s iron 
man Talus. Spenser rep¬ 
resents Talus as the attend¬ 
ant of “the champion of 


True Justice, Artegal,” 
who with an iron flail 
threshes out falsehood and 
unfolds truth. 




23. CHARLES DICKENS, 

1812-1870. 

Charles Dickens, the most popular novelist of the 
Victorian Age, was born in Portsmouth, where his 
father, John Dickens, held a position in the pay de¬ 
partment of the navy, but so much of the novelist’s 
life was spent in London that essentially he may be 
called a Londoner. His father became a reporter for 
Parliament, and here the young novelist first acquired 
a taste for literary work. His father, however, preferred 
that Charles should be an attorney, and therefore put 
him to the study of law in an attorney’s office. But 
the occupation was so distasteful to the young man 
that he soon abandoned it, and became a reporter for 
the London newspapers; and it was in this capacity 
that he acquired that keen insight into human charac¬ 
ter, .and that full appreciation and knowledge of the 
follies and eccentricities of mankind, which have made 
his novels so popular and enjoyable wherever the Eng¬ 
lish language is read. 

His first literary success was a series of character- 
sketches entitled Sketches hy Boz, the nom-de-jplume being 
a little sister’s pronunciation of Moses, the nickname 
applied by Dickens to a younger brother. These sketches 
first appeared in the Chronicle , but were afterward printed 
in book-form, and they met with a ready sale. 

The author was now called upon to write the adven¬ 
tures and misadventures of an ideal company of Cock¬ 
ney sportsmen, the illustrations for the sketches to be 
furnished by Mr. Seymour. This volume, under the 

243 


244 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


title The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club , first 
appeared in monthly parts, and was hailed with great 
delight, establishing for the author the beginning of the 
great fame which he afterward attained as a novelist. 

Volume after volume followed rapidly from his pen, 
and after having published Nicholas Nickleby , Oliver 
Twist , The Old Curiosity Shop , and Barnaby Rudge , 
Dickens made a visit to America, in which he gleaned 
the material for his American Notes for General Circula¬ 
tion and Martin Chuzzlewit , in which works he greatly 
exaggerated such peculiarities and eccentricities of the 
Americans as fell under his observation. But this is 
characteristic of all his work. It is caricature and ex¬ 
aggeration, in a great measure, that have made his writ¬ 
ings popular. 

After Dickens’s return from America he spent a year 
in Italy, and then, returning to England, established 
and edited the Daily News. But he soon abandoned 
this, and again began his favorite work of writing fic¬ 
tion. Dombey and Son , David Copperfield , and Bleak House 
appeared in succession. In 1850 he took charge of 
Household Words , w T hich afterward became his own 
property under the name All the Year Round , and in 
this he published most of his subsequent novels in 
weekly installments. 

Among Dickens’s other works are Christmas Stories , A 
Child’s History of England , and the novels Hard Times , 
Little Dorrit , A Tale of Two Cities , Great Expectations , Our 
Mutual Friend , and Edwin Drood; the last of which was 
left incomplete at the time of his death, from overwork, 
in 1870. 


CRITICISM BY TAINE. 

When the mind, with rapt attention, penetrates the 
minute details of a precise image, joy and grief shake 


CHARLES DICKENS. 


245 


the whole man. Dickens has this attention and sees 
these details; this is why he meets everywhere with 
objects of exaltation. He never abandons his impas¬ 
sioned tone; he never rests in a natural style and in 
simple narrative; he only rails or weeps; he writes but 
satires or elegies.This impassioned style is ex¬ 

tremely potent, and to it may be attributed half the 
glory of Dickens. The majority of men have only 
weak emotions. We labor mechanically, and yawn 
much; three-fourths of things leave us cold; we go to 
sleep by habit, and we no longer remark the household 
scenes, petty details, stale adventures, which are the 
basis of our existence. A man comes who suddenly 
renders them interesting; nay, who makes them dra¬ 
matic, changes them into objects of admiration, tender¬ 
ness, and dread. 

We are immersed for two hundred pages in a torrent 
of new emotions, contrary and increasing, which com¬ 
municates its violence to the mind, which carries it 
away in digressions and falls, and only casts it on the 
bank enchanted and exhausted. It is an intoxication, 
and on a delicate soul the effect would be too forcible; 
but it suits the English public, and that public has 
justified it. 

THE LAST HOUKS OF LITTLE PAUL DOMBEY. 

Paul had never risen from his little bed. He lay 
there, listening to the noises in the street, quite tran¬ 
quilly ; not caring much how the time went, but watch¬ 
ing everything about him with observing eyes. When 
the sunbeams struck into his room through the rustling 5 
blinds, and quivered on the opposite wall like golden 


Analysis.—6, 7. Point out the figure in these lines.. Give the 
grammatical construction of like and water. 



246 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

water, he knew that evening was coming on, and that 
the sky was red and beautiful. As the reflection died 
away, and the gloom went creeping up the wall, he 
watched it deepen, deepen, deepen into night. Then 10 
he thought how the long streets were dotted with 
lamps, and how peaceful stars were shining overhead. 
His fancy had a strange tendency to wander to the 
river, which he knew was flowing through the great 
city; and now he thought how black it was, and how 15 
deep it would look, reflecting the hosts of stars, and, 
more than all, how steadily it rolled away to meet 
the sea. 

As it grew later in the night, and footsteps in the 
street became so rare that he could hear them coming, 20 
count them as they passed, and lose them in the hollow 
distance, he would lie and watch the many-colored ring 
about the candle and wait patiently for day. His only 
trouble was, the swift and rapid river. He felt forced, 
sometimes, to try to stop it—to stem it with his childish 25 
hands, or choke its way with sand—and when he saw it 
coming on, resistless, he cried out. But a word from 
Florence, who was always at his side, restored him to 
himself; and, leaning his poor head upon her breast, he 
told Floy of his dream, and smiled. 30 

When day began to dawn again, he watched for the 
sun; and when its cheerful light began to sparkle in the 
room, he pictured to himself—pictured! He saw the 


Analysis. —10. Give the grammatical construction of deepen. 
15. Name the objective modifiers of thought. 

21, 22. hollow distance. What figure ? 

25. Give the grammatical construction of to try and to stop. 

27. Give the grammatical construction of coming and resistless. 

28. 29. restored him to himself. Elucidate. 

29. his poor head. What figure ? 

32. cheerful light. What figure? 



CHARLES DICKENS. 


247 


high church-towers rising up into the morning sky, the 
town reviving, waking, starting into life once more, the 
river glistening as it rolled (but rolling fast as ever), 
and the country bright with dew. Familiar sounds and 
cries came by degrees into the street below; the servants 
in the house were roused and busy; faces looked in at 
the door, and voices asked his attendants softly how he 
was. Paul always answered for himself, “ I am better. 
I am a great deal better, thank you ! Tell papa so.” 

By little and little he got tired of the bustle of the 
day, the noise of carriages and carts, people passing and 
repassing; and would fall asleep, or be troubled with a 
restless and uneasy sense again—the child could hardly 
tell whether this were in his sleeping or his waking 
moments—of that rushing river. “ Why, will it never 
stop, Floy ?” he would sometimes ask her. “ It is bear¬ 
ing me away, I think.” 

But Floy could always soothe and reassure him; and 
it was his daily delight to make her lay her head down 
on his pillow and take some rest. 

“You are always watching me, Floy. Let me watch 
you, now.” They would prop him up with cushions in 
a corner of his bed, and there he would recline the while 
she lay beside him; bending forward oftentimes to kiss 
her, and whispering to those who were near that she 
was tired, and how she had sat up so many nights be¬ 
side him. 

Thus the flush of the day, in its heat and light, would 


Analysis. —34, 35. the town reviving, waking , etc. What figure ? 
35. Give the grammatical construction of reviving, waking, starting , 
glistening. 

39, 40. faces looked in, voices asked, etc. What figure ? 

46-48. child .... moments. Give the grammatical construction of 
all the words. 

56. Parse the word while. 


35 

40 

45 

50 

55 

60 




248 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


gradually decline; and again the golden water would be 
dancing on the wall. 

He was visited by as many as three grave doctors— 
they used to assemble down stairs, and come up to- 65 
gether—and the room was so quiet, and Paul was so 
observant of them (though he never asked of anybody 
what they said), that he even knew the difference in the 
sound of their watches. But his interest centred in 
Sir Parker Peps, who always took bis seat on the side 70 
of the bed. For Paul had heard them say long ago 
that that gentleman had been with his mamma when 
she clasped Florence in her arms and died. And he 
could not forget it now. He liked him for it. He was 
not afraid. 75 

Paul closed his eyes with those words, and fell asleep. 
When he awoke the sun was high, and the broad day 
was clear and warm. He lay a little, looking at the 
windows, which were open, and the curtains rustling in 
the air, and waving to and fro: then he said, “ Floy, is 80 
it to-morrow ? Is she come ?” 

Some one seemed to go in quest of her. Perhaps it 
was Susan. Paul thought he heard her telling him, 
when he had closed his eyes again, that she would soon 
be back; but he did not open them to see. She kept 85 
her word—perhaps she had never been away—but the 


Analysis.— 62 . the golden water , etc. What figure? 

64. as many as three .... doctors. Give the grammatical construc¬ 
tion of all these words. 

68. even knew. Notice the force of even as an emphatic adverb, 
relating to the entire expression. 

71. Parse long ago ; also, that that gentleman. 

76. fell asleep. Give the grammatical construction. 

77. What is the meaning of broad day ? 

81. Is she come ? Notice the use of is come for has come . 

82. quest. Give a more modern word. 




CHARLES DICKENS. 249 

next thing that happened was a noise of footsteps on 
the stairs, and then Paul woke—woke mind and body— 
and sat upright in his bed. He saw them now about 
him. There was no gray mist before them, as there 
had -been sometimes in the night. He knew them 
every one, and called them by their names. 

“And who is this? Is this my old nurse?” said the 
child, regarding, with a radiant smile, a figure coming in. 

Yes, yes. No other stranger would have shed those 
tears at the sight of him, and called him her dear boy, 
her pretty boy, her own poor blighted child. No other 
woman would have stooped down by his bed, and taken 
up his wasted hand, and put it to her lips and breast, as 
one who had some right to fondle it. No other woman 
w r ould have so forgotten everybody there but him and 
Floy, and been so full of tenderness and pity. 

“ Floy! this is a kind, good face!” said Paul. “ I am 
glad to see it again. Don’t go away, old nurse! Stay 
here!” 

His senses were all quickened, and he heard a name 
he knew. 

“Who was that? who said Walter ?” he asked, look¬ 
ing round. “Some one said Walter. Is he here? I 
should like to see him very much.” 

Nobody replied directly, but his father soon said to 
Susan, “ Call him back, then : let him come up.” After 
a short pause of expectation, during which he looked 
with smiling interest and wonder on his nurse, and saw 
that she had not forgotten Floy, Walter was brought 


Analysis. —91, 92. knew them every one. Give the grammatical 
construction of one. 

101,102. but him and Floy. Parse but and Floy. 

106,107. heard a name he knew. Supply the ellipsis. 

108. Name the object of asked. 

Ill, 112. Name the modifiers of said. 


i 90 

95 

100 

105 

110 

115 



250 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


into the room. His open face and manner, and his 
cheerful eyes, had always made him a favorite with 
Paul; and when Paul saw him he stretched out his 
hand, and said, “ Good-bye!” 

“ Good-bj^e, my child 1” cried Mrs. Pipchin, hurrying 
to his bed’s head. “Not good-bye?” 

For an instant, Paul looked at her with the wistful 
face with which he had so often gazed upon her in his 
corner by the fire. “ Ah, yes,” he said, placidly, “ good¬ 
bye !—Walter dear, good-bye 1” turning his head to where 
he stood, and putting out his hand again.—“ Where is 
papa?” 

He felt his father’s breath upon his cheek before the 
words had parted from his lips. 

“ Remember Walter, dear papa,” he whispered, look¬ 
ing in his face—“remember Walter. I was fond of 
Walter!” The feeble hand waved in the air, as if it 
cried “Good-bye!” to Walter once again. 

“ Now lay me down again,” he said; “ and, Floy, come 
close to me, and let me see you.” 

Sister and brother wound their arms around each other, 
and the golden light came streaming in, and fell upon 
them, locked together. 

“ How fast the river runs between its green banks and 
the rushes, Floy !• But it’s very near the sea. I hear the 
waves. They always said so !” 

Presently he told her that the motion of the boat upon 
the stream was lulling him to rest. How green the banks 


Analysis. —116,117. open face .... cheerful eyes. Explain the 
meaning. 

319. Good-bye. This is a contraction of God be with you. 

133. once again. Explain the force of once. 

134,135. come close to me. What does close modify? 

137. golden light came streaming. What figure? Give the grammat¬ 
ical construction of streaming . 


120 

125 

130 

135 

140 



CHARLES DICKENS. 


251 


were now, how bright the flowers growing on them, and 
how tall the rushes! Now the boat was out at sea, but 
gliding smoothly on. And now there was a shore be¬ 
fore him. Who stood on the bank? 

He put his hands together, as he had been used to do 
at his prayers. He did not remove his arms to do it, 
but they saw him fold them so behind her neck. 

“ Mamma is like you, Floy. I know her by the face! 
But tell them that the print upon the stairs at school is 
not divine enough. The light about the head is shining 
on me as I go !” 

The golden ripple on the wall came back again, and 
nothing else stirred in the room. The old, old fashion! 
The fashion that came in with our first garments, and 
will last unchanged until our race has run its course, 
and the wide firmament is rolled up like a scroll. The 
old, old fashion—Death! 

Oh thank God, all who see it, for that older fashion 
yet, of immortality ! And look upon us, angels of young 
children, with regards not quite estranged, when the swift 
river bears us to the ocean! 


Analysis.—151. is like you. Parse like and you. 

155. the golden ripple. What figure? 

158. has run. Dispose of this verb. 

159. is rolled up like a scroll. What figure ? Parse like and scroll. 
161. all who see it. Give the person of all and who. 


145 

150 

155 

160 



24. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, 

1811 - 1863 . 

One of the greatest of English novelists was William 
Makepeace Thackeray, who was born at Calcutta in 
1811, his father being an English official stationed in 
India. When yet a small child the future novelist was 
sent to England, that he might be educated. After a 
careful training in the old Charter-House School, he was 
admitted to the University of Cambridge, but he did not 
remain long enough to take his degree. His father hav¬ 
ing died and left him a large fortune, Thackeray resolved 
to become an artist, and therefore spent four or five 
years in studying the masterpieces in the art-galleries 
of France, Italy, and Germany. On returning to Lon¬ 
don he continued his art-studies. But having a distrust 
of his abilities as an artist, and having lost a large part 
of his fortune, he was compelled to adopt literature as 
his profession. 

Under the signatures “ Michael Angelo Titmarsh ” 
and “George Fitzboodle, Esq.,” he contributed a num¬ 
ber of articles—poetry, criticism, and fiction—to Fraser’s 
Magazine. Among the chief was a story, Barry Lyndon , 
which gave a humorous account of the adventures of an 
Irish fortune-hunter. 

Thackeray’s next venture was in writing sketches for 
Punch. To this periodical he contributed The Snob Pa¬ 
pers and Jeames’s Diary, the wit of which has rarely been 
equaled. Whether the author meant it or not, it is said 
to have been an excellent caricature on the phonetic sys¬ 
tem of spelling. 

252 


WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 253 

The foundation of Thackeray’s success as a novelist 
was laid by his first book of fiction, Vanity Fair, which 
appeared in 1846. This production, unlike in character 
any preceding English novel, at once became a favorite, 
and gave its author an honorable place among the writers 
of English fiction. Its two chief characters are Becky 
Sharp, a governess, who personifies intellect without 
virtue, and Amelia Welby, who represents virtue with¬ 
out intellect. The characters throughout are admirably 
drawn, and the book shows the author to have been not 
only a keen satirist, but also a novelist of great excel¬ 
lence. 

In 1849, Thackeray published a second novel, entitled 
The History of Arthur Pendennis. Following this came 
The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., which by many is 
considered the author’s best literary work. The New- 
comes , Thackeray’s most popular novel, appeared in 
1855, and two years later The Virginians , a continuation 
of Esmond , was published. This last purports to be a 
history of the grandson of Esmond. 

The most important of Thackeray’s other literary 
work was his editorship of the Cornhill Magazine from 
1860 to 1862, and his admirable lectures on The Four 
Georges and The English Humorists, which were delivered 
in both Great Britain and America, and all of which 
are models of style and criticism. The work of this 
lamented author was suddenly brought to an end by 
his death on the 24th of December, 1863. 

CRITICISM BY W. F. COLLIER. 

Thackeray’s language is fresh and idiomatic English, 
abounding in the better coinage from the mint of slang , 
though never descending to its baser metals. Words 
that would have shocked Dr. Johnson, and which still 


254 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


startle gentlemen of the old school by their direct ex¬ 
pressiveness, rise to his pen continually. And he talks 
to his readers, out of the pleasant page he gives them, 
with a playful, genial artlessness which not unfrequent- 
ly changes to a sudden shower of sharp, satiric hits. 
That which especially distinguishes his works among 
the crowd of English novels that load our shelves and 
tables lies in his portrayal of human character as it is. 
Painting men and women as he meets them at a dinner 
or watches them in the Park, he gives us no paragons of 
perfection, forms of exquisite beauty enshrining minds 
of unsullied purity, or that opposite ideal so familiar to 
the readers of romance; but men and women, with all 
their faults and foibles, with their modest virtues shrink¬ 
ing from exhibition, or their meanness well deserving 
the censor’s lash. 


GEORGE III. 

Note. —The following extract is taken from Thackeray’s* Lectures 
on the Four Georges. George III. was king of England from the 
year 1760 to the year 1820. In 1810 he became insane, and remain¬ 
ed so mostly to the time of his death. 

We have to glance over sixty years in as many min¬ 
utes. To read the mere catalogue of characters who 
figured during that long periocf would occupy our al¬ 
lotted time, and we should have all text and no sermon. 
England has to undergo the revolt of the American col- 5 
onie£; to submit to defeat and separation; to shake 
under the volcano of the French Revolution; to grapple 

Analysis. —1. Give the grammatical construction of have to glance. 

2, 4. To read .... sermon. What figure ? What is the subject of 
the sentence ? 

5. What figure in the line ? 

5-8. Name the modifiers of has. Notice the peculiar grammatical 
construction running through the paragraph. 



WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 255 


and fight for the life with her gigantic enemy Napoleon; 
to gasp and rally after that tremendous struggle. The 
old society, with its courtly splendors, has to pass away; 10 
generations of statesmen to rise and disappear; Pitt to 
follow Chatham to the tomb; the memory of Rodney 
and Wolfe to be superseded by Nelson’s and Welling¬ 
ton’s glory; the old poets who unite us to Queen Anne’s 
time to sink into their graves; Johnson to die, and Scott 15 
and Byron to arise; Garrick to delight the world with 
his dazzling dramatic genius; and Kean to leap on the 
stage and take possession of the astonished theatre. 
Steam has to be invented; kings to be beheaded, ban¬ 
ished, deposed, restored; Napoleon to be but an episode, 20 
and George III. is to be alive through all these varied 
changes, to accompany his people through all these 
revolutions of thought, government, society—to survive 
out of the old world into ours. 

His mother’s bigotry and hatred George inherited with 25 
the courageous obstinacy of his own race; but he was 
a firm believer where his fathers had been free-thinkers, 
and a true and fond supporter of the Church of which 


Notes. —11. Pitt. This was Sir 
William Pitt the younger, 
an English statesman. 

12. Chatham. This was Wil¬ 
liam Pitt the elder, the 
first earl of Chatham. He 
was the father of Sir Wil¬ 
liam Pitt the younger. 

Rodney was an admiral of 
the English navy. 


13. Wolfe was an English gen¬ 
eral who was killed in the 
battle of Quebec, Canada, 
in 1759. 

Nelson was a celebrated Eng¬ 
lish admiral. 

Wellington. This was Ar¬ 
thur, duke of Wellington, 
an English general and 
statesman. 


Analysis. —14. What poets belonged to Queen Anne’s time ? 
15-18. Who were Johnson , Scott, Byron , Garrick , Kean ? 

20. What is the meaning of episode as here used ? 

25, 26. His .... race. Reconstruct the sentence. 





256 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


he was the titular defender. Like other dull men, the 
king was all his life suspicious of superior people. He 
did not like Fox; he did not like Reynolds; he did not 
like Nelson, Chatham, Burke: he was testy at the idea 
of all innovations, and suspicious of all innovators. He 
loved mediocrities: Benjamin West was his favorite 
painter ; Beattie was his poet. The king lamented, not 
without pathos, in his after life, that his education had 
been neglected. He was a dull lad, brought up by nar¬ 
row-minded people. The cleverest tutors in the world 
could have done little probably to expand that small 
intellect, though they might have improved his tastes 
and taught his perceptions some generosity. 

George married the Princess Charlotte of Mecklen- 
burg-Strelitz, and for years they led the happiest, sim¬ 
plest lives, sure, ever led by married couple. It is said 
the king winced when he first saw his homely little 
bride; but, however that’may be, he was a true and 
faithful husband to her, as she was a faithful and loving 
wife. They had the simplest pleasures, the very mildest 
and simplest^little country-dances, to which a dozen 
couple were invited, and where the honest king would 
stand up and dance for three hours at a time to one 
tune; after which delicious excitement they would go 

Analysis.—29. What is the meaning of titular defender f 
dull men. What figure ? 

30-33. What is gained by the repetition of did not like f 

31. Who were Fox and Reynolds ? 

32. Who was Burke ? 

What is the meaning of testy ? 

37. What figures in the line ? 

44. Is sure an adjective or an adverb ? 

45. Is homely used here with its former or its present signification ? 

49. Give the meaning of simplest as used here. 

50. Give the meaning of honest. 

52. Is delicious a good word here? 


30 

35 

40 

45 

50 



WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 257 


to bed without any supper (the court-people grumbling 
sadly at the absence of supper), and get up quite early 
the next morning, and perhaps the next night have an- 55 
other dance; or the queen would play on the spinnet 
—she played pretty well, Haydn said—or the king 
would read to her a paper out of the Spectator , or per¬ 
haps one of Ogden’s sermons. 0 Arcadia! what a life 
it must have been! 60 

The theatre was always his delight. His bishops and 
clergy used to attend it, thinking it no shame to appear 
where that good man was seen. He is said not to have 
cared for Shakespeare or tragedy much; farces and pan¬ 
tomimes were his joy; and especially when the clown 65 
swallowed a carrot or a string of sausages he would 
laugh so outrageously that the lovely princess by his 
side would have to say, “ My gracious monarch, do 
compose yourself.” But he continued to laugh, and 
at the very smallest farces, as long so his poor wits 70 
were left him. 

“ George, be a king!” were the words which his mother 
was for ever croaking in the ears of her son; and a king 
the simple, stubborn, affectionate, bigoted man tried 
to be. 75 

He did his best, he worked according to his lights: 
what virtue he knew he tried to practice; what know¬ 
ledge he could master he strove to acquire. But, as 
one thinks of an office almost divine, performed by 


Analysis. —58. By whom was the Spectator founded ? 

59. Arcadia. A mountainous district in the heart of Peloponnesus, 
63, 64. He is ... . much. Criticise. 

72. “George, be a king,” were the words. Parse. 

73. Is croaking a good word as used here ? 

76. he worked, etc. Explain. Parse what. 

78-90. Eewrite the sentence. Show what each infinitive phrase 
modifies. 

17 



258 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


any mortal man—of any single being pretending to 
control the thoughts, to direct the faith, to order im¬ 
plicit obedience of brother millions; to compel them 
into war at his offence or quarrel; to command, “In this 
way you shall trade, in this way you shall think; these 
neighbors shall be your allies, whom you shall help— 
these others your enemies, whom you shall slay at my 
orders; in this way you shall worship God ;”—who can 
wonder that, when such a man as George took such an 
office on himself, punishment and humiliation should 
fall upon people and chief? 

Yet there is something grand about his courage. The 
battle of the king with his aristocracy remains yet to be' 
told by the historian who shall view the reign of George 
more justly than the trumpery panegyrists who w r rote 
immediately after his decease. It was he, with the 
people to back him, that made the war with America; it 
was he and the people who refused justice to the Roman 
Catholics; and on both questions he beat the patricians. 
He bribed, he bullied, he darkly dissembled on occa¬ 
sion; he exercised a slippery perseverance and a vin¬ 
dictive resolution, -which one almost admires as one 
thinks his character over. His courage was never to 
be beat. It trampled North under foot; it bent the 
stiff neck of the younger Pitt; even his illness never 
conquered that indomitable spirit. As soon as his brain 
was clear it resumed the scheme, only laid aside when 


Analysis. —94. Give the meaning of trumpery panegyrists. Is the 
term used here in a complimentary or a disparaging sense ? 

98. What is the meaning of patricians ? What is the opposite 
term? 

102. thinks his character over. Substitute a better expression. 

104. Notice the use of even as an emphatic adverb. 

105. 100. his brain was clear. What figure? Explain. 

106. it... . only laid aside. Is the position of only correct? 


80 

85 

90 

95 

100 

105 



WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 259 


his reason left him: as soon as his hands were out of 
the strait-waistcoat they took up the pen and the plan 
which had engaged him up to the moment of his malady. 

I believe it is by persons believing themselves in the 110 
right that nine-tenths of the tyranny of this world has 
been perpetrated. Arguing on that convenient premise, 
the dey of Algiers would cut off twenty heads of a morn¬ 
ing; Father Dominic would burn a score of Jews in the 
presence of the Most Catholic king, and the archbishops 115 
of Toledo and Salamanca sing Amen. Protestants were • 
roasted, Jesuits hung and quartered at Smithfield, and 
witches burned at Salem; and all by worthy people, 
who believed they had the best authority for their ac¬ 
tions. And so with respect to old George, even Ameri-120 
cans, whom he hated and who conquered him, may give 
him credit for having quite honest reasons for oppress¬ 
ing them. 

Of little comfort were the king’s sons to the king. But 
the pretty Amelia was his darling; and the little maiden, 125 
prattling and smiling in the fond arms of that old father, 
is a sweet image to look on. 

From November, 1810, George III. ceased to reign. 

All the world knows the story of his malady: all his¬ 
tory presents no sadder figure than that of the old man, 130 

Analysis. —108. strait-waistcoat. To what does this refer? 

110, 111. Name the modifier of it. 

112. Arguing , etc. What does this phrase modify? 

113, 114. of a morning. Modernize. 

115. Who is meant by the Most Catholic king f 

116. Parse sing. Locate Toledo and Salamanca. 

117. 118. Locate Smithfield and Salem. 

120, 121. even Americans. Explain the use of even. 

127. to look on. The passive infinitive is here used with the active 
form. 

130-133. that .... courts. Name the predicate. Name the modi¬ 
fiers of the subject. 



260 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

blind and deprived of reason, wandering through the 
rooms of his palace, addressing imaginary parliaments, 
reviewing fancied troops, holding ghostly courts. I have 
seen his picture as it was taken at this time hanging 
in the apartment of his daughter, the Landgravine of 
Hesse-Homburg,—amidst books and Windsor furniture, 
and a hundred fond reminiscences of her English home. 
The poor old father is represented in a purple gown, 
his snowy beard falling over his breast—the star of his 
famous order still idly shining on it. He was not only 
sightless—he became utterly deaf. All light, all reason, 
all sound of human voices, all the pleasures of this 
world of God, were taken from him. Some slight lucid 
moments he had; in one of which, the queen, desiring 
to see him, entered the room, and found him singing a 
hymn and accompanying himself on the harpsichord. 
When he had finished he knelt down and prayed aloud 
for her, and then for his family, and then for the nation, 
concluding with a prayer for himself, that it might please 
God to avert his heavy calamity from him, but if not to 
give him resignation to submit. He then burst into 
tears, and his reason again fled. 

What preacher need moralize on this story? what 
words save the simplest are requisite to tell it? It is 
too terrible for tears. The thought of such a misery 
smites me down in submission before the Ruler of 
kings and men, the Monarch Supreme over empires 
and republics, the inscrutable Dispenser of life, death, 


Analysis. —134. hanging. Give the grammatical construction* 
Name the modifiers of hanging. 

143, 140. Point out the figure. 

143, 144. lucid moments. What figure ? 

150. amrt from. Criticise. 

157. Give grammatical construction of Monarch Supreme. 

158. Give grammatical construction of Dispenser. 


135 

140 

145 

150 

155 



WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 261 


happiness, victory. “ 0 brothers,” I said to those who 
heard me first in America—“ 0 brothers! speaking the 
same dear mother-tongue,—0 comrades! enemies no 
more, let us take a mournful hand together as we stand 
by this royal corpse, and call a truce to battle! Low he 
lies to whom the proudest used to kneel once, and who 
was cast lower than the poorest; dead, whom millions 
prayed for in vain. Driven off his throne; buffeted by 
rude hands; with his children in revolt; the darling of 
his old age killed before him untimely, our Lear hangs 
over her breathless lips and cries, ‘ Cordelia, Cordelia, 
stay a little!’ 

‘Vex not his ghost—oh, let him pass—he hates him 
That would upon the rack of this tough world 
Stretch him out longer!' 

Hush, Strife and Quarrel, over the solemn grave! 
Sound, Trumpets, a mournful march. Fall, Dark Cur¬ 
tain, upon his pageant, his pride, his grief, his awful 
tragedy!” _ 

Analysis.— 159-161. Name the object of said. 

160. speaking, etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

161, 162. Give grammatical construction of enemies, no, and more. 

163. Dispose of the word Low. 

Name the modifiers of he. 

164. used to kneel. Parse. 

165. dead, whom millions, etc. Supply the ellipsis. 

174. Point out the figure in this line. 

175. mournful march. What figure? 

Why is Curtain written with a capital letter ? 


160 

165 

170 

175 



25. GEORGE ELIOT, 

1820 (?)- 1881 . 

“ George Eliot ” is the assumed name under which 
Mrs. Marian C. Lewes (formerly Evans) wrote some 
of the finest English novels of the Victorian Age. 

Miss Evans was born about the year 1820 in the north¬ 
ern part of England, but of her early life little has ever 
been made known to the public. In girlhood she be¬ 
came a resident of London, where she pursued a rigid 
and systematic course of study, which manifests itself 
everywhere in her writings in a breadth and strength 
of thought characteristic more generally of the mascu¬ 
line mind, and that make her novels more than the 
relation of incident or the mere delineation of character. 

George Eliot first attracted attention as a writer by 
some sketches, Scenes of Clerical Life , which appeared in 
Blackwood’s Magazine in 1857. Her next effort was Adam, 
Bede , one of her most popular novels, which appeared 
in 1859, and which ran through five editions in as many 
months. In 1859 also she published The Mill on the Floss , 
and in 1861 Silas Marner. Her fourth novel, Romola , 
which is one of her very best, was published in 1863. 
It is an historical novel of Italian life, and is probably 
her most artistic work, though it is ’less popular than 
most of her other writings. 

In 1866 Felix Holt, the Radical , her fifth novel, was 
issued, and this was followed in 1871 by Middlemarch , a 
study of English provincial life, and in 1876 by Daniel 
Deronda , a story of modern English life. All of these 
262 • 


GEORGE ELIOT. 263 

have been popular, but Middlemarch has met with a 
success and popularity almost unprecedented. 

In addition to her novels, on which George Eliot’s 
success and fame are founded, she has written also sev¬ 
eral volumes of poems. The most prominent of these 
are a drama, The Spanish Gypsy , and Agatha , a Poem , the 
first of which appeared in 1868, and the second in 1869. 

A few years before her death, which occurred early in 
1881, she became the wife of the celebrated philosophi¬ 
cal writer, George Henry Lewes, who having died she 
married Mr. J. W. Cross, a London banker, but she died 
within a year after this marriage. 


CRITICISM BY R. H. HUTTON. 

The great authoress who calls herself “ George Eliot ” 
is chiefly known, and no doubt deserves to be chiefly 
known, as a novelist, but she is certainly much more 
than a novelist in the sense in which that w^ord applies 
even to writers of great genius—to Miss Austen or Mr. 
Trollope; nay, much more than a novelist in the sense 
in which that word applies to Miss Bronte, or even to 
Thackeray; though it is of course true, in relation to 
all these writers, that, besides being much more, she is 
also and necessarily not so much. What is remarkable 
in George Eliot is the striking combination in her of 
very deep speculative power with a.very great and real¬ 
istic imagination. It is rare to find an intellect so skill¬ 
ed in analysis of the deepest psychological problems, so 
completely at home in the conception and delineation 
of real characters. George Eliot discusses the practical 
influences acting on men and women, I do not say with 
the ease of Fielding—for there is a touch of carefulness, 
often of over-carefulness, in all she does—but with much 
of his breadth and spaciousness—the breadth and spa- 


264 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


ciousness, one must remember, of a man who had seen 
London life in the capacity of a London police magis¬ 
trate. Nay, her imagination has, I do not say of course 
the fertility, but something of the range and the delight 
in rich historic coloring, of Sir Walter Scott’s; while it 
combines with it something too of the pleasure in order¬ 
ed learning, and the laborious marshaling of the pic¬ 
turesque results of learning, which gives the flavor of 
scholastic pride to the great genius of Milton. 

SAINT THEEESA. 

Note. —The following extract is taken from George Eliot’s most 
popular novel, Middlemarch. 

Who that cares much to know the history of man, 
and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the 
varying experiments of time, has not dwelt, at least 
briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa, has not smiled with 
some gentleness at the thought of the little girl walking 5 
forth one morning, hand-in-hand with her still smaller 
brother, to go and seek martyrdom in the country of 
the Moors ? Out they toddled from rugged Avila, wide- 
eyed and helpless-looking as two fawns, but with hu¬ 
man hearts, already beating to a national idea, until 10 
domestic reality met them in the shape of uncles and 
turned them back from their great resolve. That child- 


Analysis.—1-8. What is the modifier of Who ? Point out the 
predicf|^pf the sentence. Name the objects of to know. 

1. Is rmn used in an abstract or a concrete sense? 

3, 4. at least briefly. Dispose of at least and briefly . 

5, 6. the littk girl walking forth, etc. Is the expression correct? 
hand-in-hand. Parse, still smaller. What does still modify ? 

7. to go and seek. Is the expression correct ? 

8, 9. Out they toddled from. What is the preposition? What 
figure? What kind of adjectives are wild-eyed and helpless-looking? 

8-12. What are the modifiers of they? 



GEORGE ELIOT. 


265 


pilgrimage was a fit beginning. Theresa’s passionate, 
ideal nature demanded an epic life: what were many- 
volumed romances of chivalry and the social conquests 
of a brilliant girl to her ? Her flame quickly burned 
up that light fuel, and, fed from within, soared after 
some illimitable satisfaction, some object which would 
never justify weariness, which would reconcile self-de¬ 
spair with the rapturous consciousness of life beyond 
self. She found her epos in the reform of a religious 
order. 

That Spanish woman who lived three hundred years 
ago was certainly not the last of her kind. Many 
Theresas have been born who found for themselves no 
epic life wherein there was a constant unfolding of far- 
resonant action; perhaps only a life of mistakes, the off¬ 
spring of a certain spiritual grandeur ill matched with 
the meanness of opportunity, perhaps a tragic failure 
which found no sacred poet and sank unwept into ob¬ 
livion. With dim lights and tangled circumstance they 
tried to shape their thought and deed in noble agree¬ 
ment; but, after all, to common eyes their struggles 
seemed mere inconsistency and formlessness; for these 
later-born Theresas were helped by no coherent social 
faith and order which could perform the function of 


Analysis. —14. epic life. What is meant ? 

16. What is the proper position of the phrase to her ? 

17. Parse fed and within. 

16-22. Her flame .... order. Point out figures. 

21. epos. An epic poem or its subject. 

23, 24. Dispose of lived and ago. Substitute a word for kind. 

26. Give an equivalent for wherein. 

27, 28. Parse offspring. 

30. Dispose of unwept. 

33. after all. Give full clause of which this is an abridgment. 

34. Give grammatical construction of inconsistency. 


15 

20 

25 

30 

35 



266 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


knowledge for the ardently willing soul. Their ardor 
alternated between a vague, ideal and the common 
yearning of womanhood; so that the one was disap¬ 
proved as extravagance, and the other condemned as a 
lapse. 

Some have felt that these blundering lives are due to 
the inconvenient indefiniteness with which the Supreme 
Power has fashioned the natures of women; if there 
were one level of feminine incompetence as strict as the 
ability to count three and no more, the social lot of wo¬ 
men might be treated with scientific certitude. Mean¬ 
while, the indefiniteness remains, and the limits of 
variation are really much wider than any one would 
imagine from the sameness of a woman’s coiffure and 
the favorite love-stories in prose and verse. Here and 
there a cygnet is reared uneasily among the ducklings 
in the brown pond, and never finds the living stream in 
fellowship with his own oary-footed kind. Here and 
there is born a Saint Theresa, foundress of nothing, 
whose loving heart-beats and sobs after an unattained 
goodness tremble off, and are dispersed among hin¬ 
drances, instead of centring in some long recognizable 
deed. 


Analysis. —40. Parse as. 

47, 48. Give a substitute for certitude. Parse Meanwhile. 

53. the living stream. What figure ? 

54. What is the meaning of oary-footed ? 


40 

45 

50 

55 



26. THOMAS CARLYLE, 

1795 - 1881 . 

Thomas Carlyle, a writer whose work was of such a 
variety of character that he might be styled historian, 
translator, biographer, and essayist in one, was born in 
the southern part of Scotland, in the village of Eccle- 
fechan, Annandale, on the 4th of December, 1795. His 
father was a stone-mason and farmer, and his mother 
was also of the humbler rank, but both were persons of 
exceptional character and sterling piety. Thomas was 
the oldest of nine children, all of whom gratefully re¬ 
vered both father and mother. 

Carlyle’s early education was acquired in the gram¬ 
mar-school at Annan, from which he was sent to the 
University at Edinburgh when fourteen years of age. 
Here he took special delight in the study of mathe¬ 
matics and natural science. In May, 1814, he finished 
his college career, and the post of mathematical teacher 
in the academy at Annan being vacant, Carlyle entered 
the competitive examination and was successful in ob¬ 
taining the place. Two years later he was called to a 
similar position in the academy at Kirkcaldy, where the 
friendship between him and Edward Irving, the head¬ 
master, which was begun at Annan when schoolboys 
and continued at the University, was renewed, to be 
kept glowing for a lifetime. Here they “talked and- 
wrought and thought ” together. For two years they 
pursued their task and enforced their discipline, so vig¬ 
orously, it is said, as to awaken the indignation of the 
neighborhood, and then quitted the place for Edin- 

267 


268 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


burgh. Carlyle now abandoned teaching, and soon 
after also gave up his original intention of entering the 
ministry. On his return to Edinburgh he subjected 
himself to a rigid course of reading in the University 
library, and soon began preparing a series of short bio¬ 
graphical articles for Brewster’s Edinburgh Cyclopaedia. 
He also contributed to the Edinburgh Review about this 
time, and in 1822 undertook the translation of Legen¬ 
dre’s Geometry , prefixing an original and thoughtful 
essay on “ Proportion.” 

His next literary work was the Life of Schiller, which 
was of such excellence that it was immediately trans¬ 
lated into German, with a preface by the German poet 
Goethe. Carlyle lalso about this time (1824) issued 
anonymously a translation of Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister's 
Apprenticeship, which was highly praised by the critics 
of the day. 

Two years later (in 1826) he was married to an es¬ 
timable lady, Miss Jane Welsh, the daughter of Dr. 
Welsh of Haddington, who, it has been said, was ad¬ 
mirably fitted to be the wife of a man of genius.' Car¬ 
lyle says of her on her tombstone, “ For forty years she 
was the true and loving helpmate of her husband, and 
by act and word unweariedly forwarded him as none 
else could in all of worthy that he did or attempted.” 
The first two years of his married life were spent in 
Edinburgh, where he finished a series of German trans¬ 
lations, which he issued under the title German Romance 
in 1827. They then removed to a little farm near Dum¬ 
fries, owned by Mrs. Carlyle, and known as Craigenput- 
toch, where they resided for six years, and where some 
of Carlyle’s best work was done. It was while living 
here that he wrote many of his best essays, which were 
published in the leading magazines of the day. Mr. 
Carlyle’s first great book was Sartor Resartus, now recog- 


THOMAS CARLYLE. 


269 


nized as a classic. After haying been rejected by a num¬ 
ber of publishers, it was at length issued in 1834. His 
History of the French Revolution followed in 1837, and he 
was now on the high road to fame. The- best of his 
other works, which followed in succession, are Chartism , 
Past and Present, Hero-Worship (originally delivered as 
lectures), Miscellaneous Essays, CromweWs Letters and 
Speeches , Latter-Day Pamphlets , Life of John Sterling , and, 
the crowning effort of his literary work, The Life of 
Frederick the Great , completed in 1865. Shortly after 
the completion of this work he was made lord rector 
of the University of Edinburgh, and he delivered his 
installation address on April 2, 1866. But his great 
success was speedily followed by a great calamity in 
the death of his wife, on the 21st of the same month. 
Her husband, surviving her fifteen years, died on the 
morning of February 5, 1881. 


CRITICISM BY LOWELL. 

Carlyle’s historical compositions are wonderful prose- 
poems, full of picture, incident, humor, and character, 
where we grow familiar with his conception of certain 
leading personages, and even of subordinate ones if they 
are necessary to the scene, so that they come out living 
upon the stage from the dreary limbo of names; but 
this is no more history than the historical plays of 
Shakespeare. There is nothing in imaginative litera¬ 
ture superior in its own way to the episode of Voltaire 
in the Life of Frederick the Great. It is delicious in 

humor, masterly in minute characterization. 

With the gift of song, Carlyle would have been the 
greatest of epic poets since Homer. Without it to 
modulate and harmonize and bring parts into their 
proper relation, he is the most amorphous of humor- 



270 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


ists, the most shining avatar of whim, the world has 

ever seen.But, with all deductions, he remains 

the profoundest critic and the most dramatic imagina¬ 
tion of modern times. 


EOBEET BUENS. 

Note. —The following extract is taken from Carlyle’s Essay on 
Burns. 

Properly speaking, there is but one era in the life of 
Burns, and that the earliest. We have not youth and 
manhood, but only youth ; for to the end we discern no 
decisive change in the complexion of his character: in 
his thirty-seventh year he is still, as it were, in youth. 5 
With all that resoluteness of judgment, that penetrating 
insight, and singular maturity of intellectual power ex¬ 
hibited in his writings, he never attains to any clearness 
regarding himself: to the last he never ascertains his 
peculiar aim, even with such distinctness as is common 10 
among ordinary men, and therefore never can pursue it 
with that singleness of will which ensures success and 
some contentment.to such men. To the last he wavers . 
between two purposes: glorying in his talent, like a true 
poet, he yet cannot consent to make this his chief and 15 
sole glory, and to follow it as the one thing needful, 
through poverty or riches, through good or evil report. 


Analysis. —1. Give the grammatical construction of speaking. 
Parse there and but. 

3. Parse only. 

5. as it were. Dispose of these words. 

6, 7. with .... power. What kind of adjunct ? 

10. Give the grammatical construction of even. 

11. never can pursue. Should there not be a subject supplied? 
14,15. like a true poet. What figure? 

17. Supply the ellipsis. 




THOMAS CARLYLE. 


271 


Another far meaner ambition still clings to him: he 
must dream and struggle about a certain “ rock of in¬ 
dependence,” which, natural and even admirable as it 
might be, was still but a warring with the world on the 
comparatively insignificant ground of his being more or 
less completely supplied with money than others, of his 
standing at a higher or at a lower altitude in general 
estimation than others. For the world still appears to 
him, as to the young, in borrowed colors: he expects 
from it what it cannot give to any man—seeks for con¬ 
tentment, not within himself, in action and wise effort, 
but from without, in the kindness of circumstances, in 
love, friendship, honor, pecuniary ease. He would be 
happy, not actively and in himself, but passively, and 
from some ideal cornucopia of enjoyments not earned 
by his own labor, but showered on him by the benef¬ 
icence of destiny. Thus, like a young man, he cannot 
steady himself for any fixed or systematic pursuit, but 
swerves to and fro, between passionate hope and re¬ 
morseless disappointment: rushing onward with a deep, 
tempestuous force, he surmounts or breaks asunder many 
a barrier—travels, nay advances far, but, advancing only 
under uncertain guidance, is ever and anon turned from 
his path, and to the last cannot reach the only true hap¬ 
piness of a man—that of clear, decided activity in the 


Analysis. —18-25. he must dream .... than others. This is all 
in apposition with what ? Parse others in line 25. 

26. Supply the ellipsis in this line. 

27, Parse what. 

29. Parse without. 

32. ideal cornucopia. What is meant ? 

33. showered on him, etc. What figure ? 

36. Dispose of to and fro. 

38. tempestuous force. What figure ? 

39. Parse nay. 


20 

25 

30 

35 

40 



272 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

sphere for which by nature and circumstances he has 
been fitted and appointed. 

We do not say these things in dispraise of Burns: 45 
nay, perhaps, they but interest us the more in his favor. 
This blessing is not given soonest to the best, but rather 
it is often the greatest minds that are latest in obtaining 
it; for where most is to be developed, most time may 
be required to develop it. A complex condition had 50 
been assigned him from without—as complex a condi¬ 
tion from within: “ no pre-established harmony ” exist¬ 
ed between the clay soil of Mossgiel and the empyrean 
soul of Robert Burns: it w r as not wonderful, therefore, 
that the adjustment between them should have been 55 
long postponed, and his arm long cumbered and his 
sight confused in so vast and discordant an economy as 
he had been appointed steward over. Byron was, at his 
death, but a year younger than Burns, and through life, 
as it might have appeared, far more simply situated, yet 60 
in him, too, we can trace no such adjustment, no such 
moral manhood, but at best, and only a little before his 
end, the beginning of what seemed, such. 

By much the most striking incident in Burns’s life is 
his journey to Edinburgh, but perhaps a still more im- 65 
portant one is his residence at Irvine, so early as in his 


Analysis. —47-49. This blessing . obtaining it. Criticise the 

clause. 

49. Give the grammatical construction of most and most. 

51, 52. Supply the ellipsis. 

53. Mossgiel, a village where Burns in his youth labored on the 
farm. 

53, 54. Point out the figure in these lines. 

58. Give the grammatical construction of over. 

60. far more simply situated. Parse these words. 

61. Parse too. 

64r-67. Criticise. 



THOMAS CARLYLE. 


273 


twenty-third year. Hitherto his life had been poor and 
toil worn, but otherwise not ungenial, and, with all its 
distresses, by no means unhappy. In his parentage, de¬ 
ducting outward circumstances, he had every reason to 
reckon himself fortunate. His father was a man of 
thoughtful, intense, earnest character, as the best of our 
peasants are—valuing knowledge, possessing some, and, 
what is far better and rarer, open-minded for more—a 
man with a keen insight and devout heart: reverent 
toward God, friendly therefore at once, and fearless, 
toward all that God has made: in one word, though 
but a hard-handed peasant, a complete and fully un¬ 
folded man. Such a father is seldom found in any rank 
in society, and was worth descending far in society to 
seek. Unfortunately, he was very poor: had he been 
even a little richer, almost ever so little, the whole might 
have issued far otherwise. Mighty events turn on a 
straw: the crossing of a brook decides the conquest of 
the world. Had this William Burns’s small seven acres 

Analysis. —67-69. Parse poor, toilworn, ungenial, and unhappy. 

69-71. Is this a periodic or a loose sentence? Bewrite it. 

72. Give the grammatical construction of as and best. 

73. Parse valuing and possessing. 

75. 76. Parse reverent, friendly, and therefore. 

76. Name the modifiers of fearless. 

77. in one word. Parse. 

78. Give the grammatical construction of but. 

77, 78. Transpose and supply the ellipsis. 

80. Parse worth and far. 

80. 81. Give the grammatical construction of to seek. 

81. had he been. Give the mode of the verb. 

82. Give the grammatical construction of even. 

Dispose of almost ever so little. 

82, 83. the whole .... otherwise. What is the meaning? Parse far 
and otherwise. 

83-85. Point out the figures in these lines. 

85. Had this, etc. Parse the verb. 

18 


70 

75 

80 

85 



274 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

of nursery-ground anywise prospered, the boy Robert 
had been sent to school—had struggled forward, as so 
many weaker men do, to some university—come forth 
not as a rustic wonder, but as a regular, well-trained 
intellectual workman, and changed the whole course 
of British literature; for it lay in him to have done 
this! But the nursery did not prosper: poverty sank 
his whole family below the help of even our cheap 
school system. Burns remained a hard-worked plow- 
boy, and British literature took its own course. Never¬ 
theless, even in this rugged scene, there is much to nour¬ 
ish him. If he drudges, it is with his brother, and for 
his father and mother, whom he loves and would fain 
shield from want. Wisdom is not banished from their 
poor hearth, nor the balm of natural feeling: the solemn 
words, Let us worship God , are heard there from a “priest¬ 
like father:” if threatenings of unjust men throw mother 
and children into tears, these are tears not of grief only, 
but of holiest affection: every heart in that humble 
group feels itself the closer knit to every other: in their 
bard warfare they are there together, a “ little band of 
brethren.” Neither are such tears, and the deep beauty 
that dwells in them, their only portion. Light visits the 

Analysis. —87-91. Give the mode of each of the verbs. 

89. Dispose of the word wonder. 

91, 92. for it lay in him to have done this. Criticise. 

92, 93. poverty sank his whole family. Criticise. 

93. Parse even. 

94. Parse plowhoy. 

101, Let us worship God. Give the grammatical construction. 

102, 103. Point out the figure. 

103, 104. these are tears .... affections. Analyze the sentence. 

105. feels itself the closer knit. Give the grammatical construction 
of each of these words. 

106, 107. Dispose of the words (( little band of brethren.” 

108, 109. Name the figure in these lines. 


90 

95 

100 

105 



THOMAS CARLYLE. 


275 


heart as it does the eyes of all living: there is a force, 
too, in this youth, that enables him to trample on mis-110 
fortune—nay, to bind it under his feet to make him 
sport. For a bold, warm, buoyant humor of character 
has been given him; and so the thick-coming shapes of 
evil are welcomed with a gay, friendly irony, and in 
their closest pressure he bates no jot of heart or hope. 115 
Vague yearnings of ambition fail not as he grows up; 
dreamy fancies hang like cloud-cities around him ; the 
curtain of existence is slowly rising in many-colored 
splendor and gloom : and the auroral light of first love 
is gilding his horizon, and the music of song is on his 120 
path; and so he walks 

“ In glory and in joy, 

Behind his plow, upon the mountain-side.” 

We know, from the best evidence, that up to this date 
Burns was happy—nay, that he was the gayest, bright- 125 
est, most fantastic, fascinating being to be found in the 
world—more so even than he ever afterward appeared. 
But now, at this early age, he quits the paternal roof, 
goes forth into looser, louder, more exciting society, and 
becomes initiated in those dissipations, those vices, 130 
which a certain class of philosophers have asserted to 


Analysis. —109. Name the modifiers of force. 

112. What is the force of For? 

113. Give the grammatical construction of so. 

115. he bates no jot. What is the meaning ? 

116. grows up. Parse. 

116,117. Point out the figure. Give the grammatical construction 
of cloud-cities. 

119-121. the auroral light .... his path. Explain the figures. 

124. Explain the use and construction of up to. 

126. Should not the word most be placed before fascinating? 

127. Dispose of more so even. 



276 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


be a natural preparative for entering on active life—a 
kind of mud-bath, in which the youth is, as it were, 
necessitated to steep, and, we suppose, cleanse himself, 
before the real toga of manhood can be laid on him. 135 
We shall not dispute much with this class of philoso¬ 
phers : we hope they are mistaken, for sin and remorse 
so easily beset us at all stages of life, and are always 
such indifferent company, that it seems hard we should, 
at any stage, be forced and fated not only to meet, but 140 
to yield to them, and even serve for a term in their lep¬ 
rous armada. We hope it is not so. Clear we are, at all 
events, it cannot be the training one receives in this ser¬ 
vice, but only our determining to desert from it, that fits 
us for true manly action. We become men not after we 145 
have been dissipated, and disappointed in the chase of 
false pleasure, but after we have ascertained, in any way, 
what impassable barriers hem us in through this life; 
how mad it is to hope for contentment to our infinite 
soul from the gifts of this extremely finite world—that a 15C 
man must be sufficient for himself, and that “ for suffer¬ 
ing and enduring there is no remedy but striving and 
doing.” Manhood begins when we have in any way 
made truce with necessity—begins, at all events, when 

Analysis. —132,133. a kind of mud-bath. To what does this refer? 

133. Dispose of as it were. 

135. Point out the figure in this line. 

139. that it seems hard we should, etc. Supply the ellipsis. 

141, 142. Give the syntax of even. What figure in these lines ? 

142. We hope it is not so. Analyze. 

142,143. at all events. Give the grammatical construction. 

145. We become men. Give the case of men. 

148. hem us in. Dispose of these words. 

149. What words are explanatory of it t Name the modifiers of to 
hope. What are the modifiers of contentment t 

151-153. “ for suffering .... doing.” Analyze. 

153. Name the subject and the modifiers of begins. 



THOMAS CARLYLE. 


277 


we have surrendered to necessity, as the most part only 
do; but begins* joyfully and hopefully only when we 
have reconciled ourselves to necessity; and thus, in 
reality, triumphed over it, and felt that in necessity we 
are free. Surely such lessons as this last, which in one 
shape or other is the grand lesson for every mortal man, 
are better learned from the lips of a devout mother, in 
the looks and actions of a devout father, while the heart 
is yet soft and pliant, than in collision with the sharp 
adamant of fate, attracting us to shipwreck us, when the 
heart is grown hard, and may be broken before it will 
become contrite! Had Burns continued to learn this, 
as he was already learning it, in his father’s cottage, he 
would have learned it fully, which he never did, and 
been saved many a lasting aberration, many a bitter 
hour and year of remorseful sorrow. 


Analysis. —163, 164. Name the figure in these lines. 

166. Had Bums continued , etc. What is the mode of the verb ? 

168. Name the antecedent of which. 

169. been saved. Name the mode and the tense. 


155 

160 

165 

170 



27. JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, 

1818 -. 

James Anthony Froude, one of England’s greatest 
historians, and the son of Dr. Fronde, archdeacon of 
Totness, was born in Devonshire in 1818. He was edu¬ 
cated at Westminster and at Oriel College, Oxford. Af¬ 
ter having w r on the Chancellor’s Prize in 1842 for an 
English essay, he became a Fellow of Exeter College. 

Froude first appeared as an author in 1847, when he 
published Shadows from the Clouds , a work of consider¬ 
able merit, but now almost forgotten. His next attempt 
was The Nemesis of Faith, which he meant as a protest 
against the reverence of the Church for what he calls 
Hebrew mythology. This work having offended the 
universities, he was deprived of his fellowship, and 
also of a position to which he had been appointed in 
Tasmania. 

Froude’s great work, and the one on which his fame 
is based, is his History of England from the Fall of Wolsey 
to the Death of Elizabeth , twelve volumes, which appeared 
from 1856 to 1869. The style of the work is admirable, 
and it is the most complete record extant of the period 
of which it treats; but it is also partisan, and many of 
the incidents are over-colored. While his thought is 
judicious and forcibly expressed, he sometimes bends 
the historical fact to establish an argument or enforce 
an opinion, rather than states the entire truth and per¬ 
mits each reader to draw his own conclusions. 

The most important of Mr. Froude’s other writings 

278 


JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE. 


279 


are two volumes issued in 1867, entitled Short Studies on 
Great Subjects and The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth 
Century —which last is in a measure an excuse for the 
conduct of the English government in its relations to¬ 
ward Ireland—and his Sketch of Caesar , a masterpiece of 
English composition. 


CRITICISM. 

Froude’s style in some of his writings resembles that 
of Carlyle, of whom he is an admirer, though it is with¬ 
out a tinge of the pessimism which characterized the 
later writings of his illustrious Scotch model. His 
claim is that he wrote his History after a careful investi¬ 
gation of the material at hand—state documents and 
correspondence of the time represented; and his aim 
seems to have been not to justify Henry VIII., but 
rather to avoid the wholesale censure visited upon that 
monarch. His style is not only forcible, but also 
graphic and clear. He has written ably on social and 
educational topics, as well as on history, and few books 
better repay a careful perusal than do his Short Studies 
on Great Subjects and his Sketch of Caesar. 

THE INSTRUCTIVENESS OF ROMAN HISTORY. 

Note. —This sketch is taken from the opening chapter of Froude’s 
Sketch of Ccesar. 

To the student of political history, and to the English 
student above all others, the conversion of the Roman 
Republic into a military empire commands a peculiar 
interest. Notwithstanding many differences, the Eng¬ 
lish and the Romans essentially resemble one another. 5 


Analysis. —1-4. Is this a periodic or a loose sentence ? 

5. another. Should this be one another or each other in speaking of 
two nations ? 



280 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

The early Romans possessed the faculty of self-govern¬ 
ment beyond any people of whom we have historical 
knowledge, with the one exception of ourselves. In 
virtue of their temporal freedom they became the most 
powerful nation in the known world; and their liberties 
perished only when Rome became the mistress of con¬ 
quered races to whom she was unable or unwilling to 
extend her privileges. If England was similarly su¬ 
preme, if all rival powers were eclipsed by her or laid 
under her feet, the imperial tendencies, which are as 
strongly marked in us as our love of liberty, might lead 
us over the same course to the same end. If there be 
one lesson which history clearly teaches, it is this, that 
free nations cannot govern subject provinces. If they 
are unable or unwilling to admit their dependencies to 
share their own constitution, the constitution itself will 
fall in pieces from mere incompetence for its duties. 

We talk often foolishly of the necessities of things, 
and we blame circumstances for the consequences of 
our own follies and vices; but there are faults which 
are not faults of will, but faults of mere inadequacy 
to some unforeseen position. Human nature is equal 
to much, but not to everything. It can rise to altitudes 
where it is alike unable to sustain itself or to retire from 
them to a safer elevation. Yet when the field is open it 
pushes forward, and moderation in the pursuit of great- 


Analysis. —8, 9. In virtue of. What is the meaning of virtue 
here ? 

10. knoum world. What kind of adjective is known ? 

11. when Rome became, etc. What figure? 

13. If England was, etc. What is the mode of was ? 

14, 15. What figure in these lines? 

23. We talk often foolishly. Criticise the position of the adverb. 
25-27. but there are .... position. Reconstruct. 

29. alike unable. Give grammatical construction. 


10 

15 

20 

25 

30 



JAMES ANTHONY FRO TIDE. 


281 


ness is never learnt and never will be learnt. Men of 
genius are governed by tbeir instinct; they follow where 
instinct leads them; and the public life of a nation is 
but the life of successive generations of statesmen, whose 
horizon is bounded, and who act from day to day as im¬ 
mediate interests suggest. The popular leader of the 
hour sees some present difficulty or present opportunity 
or distinction. He deals with each question as it arises, 
leaving future consequences to those who are to come 
after him. The situation changes from period to period, 
and tendencies are generated with an accelerating force, 
which, when once established, can never be reversed. 
When the control of reason is once removed, the catas¬ 
trophe is no longer distant; and then nations, like all 
organized creations, all forms of life, from the meanest 
flower to the highest human institution, pass through 
the inevitably recurring stages of growth and trans¬ 
formation and decay. A commonwealth, says Cicero, 
ought to be immortal, and for ever to renew its youth. 
Yet commonwealths have proved as unenduring as any 
other natural object; 

“ Everything that grows 
Holds in perfection but a little moment, 

And this huge state presenteth naught but shows 
Whereon the stars in silent influence comment.” 

Nevertheless, “ as the heavens are high above the earth, 
- so is wisdom above folly.” Goethe compares life to a 
game of whist, where the cards are dealt out by destiny, 
and the rules of the game are fixed: subject to these 
conditions, the players are left to win or lose according 


Analysis. —33. where. Should this be where or whither ? 
35, 36. whose horizon. What figure ? Explain. 

57, 58. Give the grammatical relation of as and so. 


35 

40 

45 

50 

55 

60 



282 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

to their skill or want of skill. The life of a nation, like 
the life of a man, may be prolonged in honor into the 
fullness of its time, 'or it may perish prematurely, for 
want of guidance, by violence or internal disorders. 
And thus the history of national revolutions is to 
statesmanship what the pathology of disease is to the 
art of medicine. The physician cannot arrest the coming 
on of age. Where disease has laid hold upon the con¬ 
stitution, he cannot expel it. But he may check the 
progress of the evil if he can recognize the symptoms 
in time. He can save life at the cost of an unsound 
limb. He can tell us how to preserve our health when 
we have it; he can warn us of the conditions under 
which particular disorders will have us at disadvantage. 
And so with nations: amidst the endless variety of cir¬ 
cumstances there are constant phenomena which give 
notice of approaching danger; there are courses of ac¬ 
tion which have uniformly produced the same results; 
and the wise politicians are those who have learnt from 
experience the real tendencies of things, unmisled by 
superficial differences—who can shun the rocks where 
others have been wrecked, or from foresight of what is 
coming can be cool when the peril is upon them. 

For these reasons the fall of the Roman Republic is 
exceptionally instructive to us. A constitutional govern¬ 
ment the most enduring and the most powerful that 
ever existed was put on its trial, and found wanting. 
We see it in its growth ; we see the causes which under¬ 
mined its strength. We see attempts to check the grow- 


Analysis. —62, 63. Dispose of like and life. 

68, 69. the coming on of age. Parse coming on. 

69. has laid hold upon. Parse. 

76-84. Analyze the sentence. 

82, 83. rocks where others, etc. What figure ? 


65 

70 

75 

80 

85 

90 



JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE. 


283 


ing mischief fail, and we see why they failed. And we 
see, finally, when nothing seemed so likely as complete 
dissolution, the whole system changed by a violent 
operation, and the dying patient’s life protracted for 
further centuries of power and usefulness. 95 

Again, irrespective of the direct teaching which we 
may gather from them, particular epochs in history 
have the charm for us which dramas have—periods 
■when the great actors on the stage of life stand before 
us with the distinctness with which they appear in thej.00 
creations of a poet. There have not been many such 
periods; for to see the past it is not enough for us to be 
able to look at it through the eyes of contemporaries; 
these contemporaries themselves must have been parties 
to the scenes which they describe. They must have had 105 
full opportunities of knowledge. They must have had 
eyes which could see things in their true proportions. 
They must have had, in addition, the rare literary 
powers which can convey to others through the me¬ 
dium of language an exact picture of their own minds; 110 
and such happy combinations occur but occasionally in 
thousands of years. Generation after generation passes 
by, and is crumbled into sand as rocks are crumbled by 
the sea. Each brought with it its heroes and its villains, 

Analysis.—91. Give the mode of fail. 

94. the dying patient’s life, etc. Explain the figure. 

96. Dispose of the word again. 

99. actors on the stage. What figure here ? 

101. There have not. Dispose of the word there. 

102. Parse for. 

102, 103. for us to be able, etc. Parse. 

106, 107. They must have had eyes, etc. Is eyes used here in a physi¬ 
cal or a mental sense ? 

110. an exact picture. What figure? 

111. hnppy combinations. What figure? 

112. 113. Parse passes by. 



284 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


its triumphs and its sorrows; but the history is formless 115 
legend, incredible and unintelligible; the figures of the 
actors are indistinct as the rude ballad or ruder inscrip¬ 
tion which may be the only authentic record of them. 

We do not see the men and women; we see only the 
outlines of them which have been woven into tradition 120 
as they appeared to the loves or hatreds of passionate 
admirers or enemies. Of such times we know nothing, 
save the broad results as they are measured from cen¬ 
tury to century, with here and there some indestructible 
pebble, some law, some fragment of remarkable poetry, 125 
which has resisted decomposition. These periods are 
the proper subject of the philosophic historian, and to 
him we leave them. But there are others, a few, at 
which intellectual activity was as great as it is now, with 
its written records surviving, in which the passions, the 130 
opinions, the ambitions of the age, are all before us—where 
the actors in the great drama speak their own thoughts in 
their own words; where we hear their enemies denounce 
them and their friends praise them; where we are our¬ 
selves plunged amidst the hopes and fears of the hour, 135 
to feel the conflicting emotions and to sympathize in the 
struggles which again seem to live ; and here philosophy 
is at fault. Philosophy, when we are face to face with real 
men, is as powerless as over the Iliad or King Lear. The 
overmastering human interest transcends explanation. 140 
We do not sit in judgment on the right or the wrong; 
we*do not seek out causes to account for what takes 


Analysis. —117. rude ballad. What is the meaning of rude here? 
123. save the broad results. Give the grammatical construction of 
save. 

125. Point out the figure in the line. 

132. Give the meaning of actors as used here. 

Give the meaning of drama in this line. 

138. face to face. Give the grammatical construction. 



CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


285 


place, feeling too conscious of the inadequacy of our 
analysis. We see human beings possessed by different 
impulses, and working out a preordained result, as the 145 
subtle forces drive each along the path marked out for 
him; and history becomes the more impressive to us 
where it least immediately instructs. 


Analysis. —148. least immediately. Give the meaning of the ex¬ 
pression. 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 

1. POETS. 

Robert Browning (1812-).—Known as the head of the 

psychological school of poets. Husband of Elizabeth Barrett 
Browning. Educated at London University. Author of Para¬ 
celsus, Pippa Passes, The Pied Piper of Hamlin, Cataract of 
Lodore, The Ring and the Booh, etc. 

Mrs. C. E. S. Norton (Miss Sheridan), (1808-1877).—Was 
the granddaughter of the celebrated dramatist Sheridan. Her 
chief poems are The Sorrows of Rosalie, The Undying One, The 
Bream, and The Child of the Islands. She wrote also the novel 
Stuart of Dunleith. 

Adelaide A. Procter (1825-1864).—The daughter of Bryan 
Waller Procter. Author of Words, One by One, A New Mother, 
and many other poems. 

Gerald Massey (1828-).—A journalist and poet. An 

errand-boy up to his eighteenth year. Author of Babe Christa- 
bel, Craigcrooh Castle, Havelock’s March, and Tale of Eternity. 

Charles Mackay (1814-).—A journalist and poet. Wrote 

The Hope of the World, The Salamandrine, Voices from the Crowd, 
Town Lyrics, Studies from the Antique, etc. Also a number of 
prose works. 

William Morris (1834-).—A great narrative poet. Edu¬ 

cated at Exeter College, Oxford. Wrote The Life and Death of 
Jason and The Earthly Paradise. 

Owen Meredith (Edward Robert Lytton, now Lord Lyt- 








286 


STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


ton), (1831 -).— A son of the great novelist. Wrote under 

the pseudonym “ Owen Meredith.” Author of The Wanderer, 

. Lucile , Chronicles and Characters, and Fables in verse. 

Prof. William E. Aytoun (1813-1865).—A native of Edinburgh. 
Educated at the University of Edinburgh. Was afterward Pro¬ 
fessor of Belles Lettres in the same University. Wrote Lays of 
Scottish Cavaliers, Bothwell, an historical romance, and a satire, 
Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy. 

Sydney Dobell (1824-1874).—A poet who wrote under the 
pseudonym “Sydney Yendys.” Was employed regularly in his 
father’s counting-house at Cheltenham. Wrote The Roman , 
England in Time of War , England’s Day, etc. 

Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-).—A London barrister 

and poet. Author of Proverbial Philosophy, An Author’s Mind, 
The Crock of Gold. 

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-).—Son of Admiral 

Swinburne. Educated at Eton and Oxford. A highly imagina¬ 
tive and classical poet. Author of Atalanta in Calydon, Chaste- 
lard, A Song of Italy, Bothwell, a tragedy, etc. 

Robert Buchanan (1841-).—A native of Scotland. Edu¬ 

cated a-t the High School and the University of Glasgow. Wrote 
Undertones when still a minor. Wrote also Idyls of Inverburn, 
London Poems, The Book of Orni, etc. 

2. DRAMATISTS. 

Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854).—An eloquent Eng¬ 
lish barrister and judge. Was called to the bar in 1821, and 
made judge in 1833. Author of the tragedies Ion, The Athenian 
Captive, and The Castilian. Wrote also Vacation Rambles, Life 
of Charles Lamb, and an Essay on the Greek Drama. 

Henry Taylor (1800— ; —).—Distinguished both as a poet and 
as an essayist. Was the literary executor of Southey, and au¬ 
thor of Philip Van Artevelde, Isaac Comnenus, Edwin, and other 
dramas. 

Douglas Jerrold (1803-1857).—Son of an actor, and distin¬ 
guished as a witty and satiric writer of plays, tales, and sketches. 
Began writing for the Coburg Theatre, on a salary, at eighteen 
years of age. Author of Black-Eyed Susan, Nell Gwynne, Rent- 
Day, The Housekeeper, Time Works Wonders, Retired from Busi- 







CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


287 


ness, Heart of Gold, and many other dramas. Author also of 
• Caudle Lectures, Men of Character, and other popular sketches. 

Tom Taylor (1817-1880).—Educated at Glasgow University 
and Cambridge. Was Professor of English Literature in Uni¬ 
versity College, London. Author of more than a hundred 
dramas. Some of his best are Still Waters Run Deep, The 
Ticket-of-Leave Man, Victims, An Unequal Match, The Contested 
Election, The Overland Route, ’ Twixt Axe and Crown, and Joan 
of Arc. 

3. HISTORIANS AND BIOGRAPHERS. 

Sir Archibald Alison (1792-1867).—Son of Rev. Archibald 
Alison, author of an Essay on Taste. Distinguished as a writer 
on law and history. Was lord rector of Marischal College, 
Aberdeen, and Glasgow University. Author of History of Eu¬ 
rope from the French Revolution to the Restoration of the Bourbons, 
ten volumes, and a History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon, 
1815, to the Accession of Napoleon, 1852, eight volumes. 

George Grote (1794-1871).—An English historian of German 
descent. Was a banker and a member of Parliament. Wrote 
History of Greece, twelve volumes, and Plato and the Other Com¬ 
panions of Socrates, three volumes. 

Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868).—Dean of St. Daubs. Au¬ 
thor of History of the Jews and History of Latin Christianity. 
One of the greatest of English historians. 

Thomas Arnold (1795-1842).—The celebrated head-master of 
Rugby School. Educated at Oxford. Author of Roman His¬ 
tory, an edition of Thucydides, and a number of Historical Lec¬ 
tures and Sermons. 

Connop Thirlwall (1797-1875).—Bishop of St. David’s. Edu¬ 
cated at Cambridge. Began life as a lawyer, but after three 
years’ experience entered the Church instead. Author of a 
History of Greece, eight volumes. 

/ Sir Francis Palgrave (1788-1861).—Son of Myer Cohen. 
Changed his name to his wife’s mother’s maiden name. Au¬ 
thor of The History of the Anglo-Saxons, The Rise and Progress 
of the English Commonwealth, The History of Normandy and of 
England. 

George Henry Lewes (1817-1878).—A philosophical essayist 
and biographer. Studied for the medical profession, but aban- 


288 STUDIES.IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


doned it for literature. Some of his best works are Biograph¬ 
ical History of Philosophy, Physiology of Common Life, The Span¬ 
ish Drama, The Life and Works of Goethe. 

John Richard Green (-——).—Examiner in the School of 

Modern History, Oxford. Author of A Short History of the Eng¬ 
lish People and Stray Studies. 

Miss Agnes Strickland (1801-1874).—A writer on historic 
scenes and stories for children. Aided by her sister, she wrote 
Lives of the Queens of England, Lives of the Queens of Scotland, 
etc. 

John Forster (1812-1876).—A tireless literary student and 
biographer. His chief works were Statesmen of the Common¬ 
wealth of England, Life of Goldsmith, Life of Dickens, Biograph- . 
ical and Historical Essays, etc. 

Charles Knight (1790-1873).—Both publisher and author. 
Wrote Old Printer and Modern Press and a Popular History of 
England. 

William Howard Russell (1816--).—Special correspondent 

for the London Times. A native of Dublin. Educated at Trinity 
College. His chief literary work has been his articles for the 
Times. He published also Diary in India, Diary North and 
South, and My Diary during the Great War. 

William Hepworth Dixon (1821-1879).—A miscellaneous wri¬ 
ter. Studied law, but devoted himself to literature. Author 
of Life of John Howard, Life of Admiral Blake, New America, 
Her Majesty's Tower, Free Russia, etc. 

Edward A. Freeman (1823-).—A prominent writer on 

history, politics, and architecture. Noted also as a lecturer. 
Author of History and Conquest of the Saracens, History of the 
Norman Conquest, Growth of the English Constitution, A History 
of Architecture, Comparative Politics, etc. 

4.NOVELISTS. 

George Payne Rainsford James (1801-1860).—A voluminous 
writer of fiction^ Said to have written one hundred and eighty- 
nine volumes. Author of Richelieu, Darnley; or, The Field of 
the Cloth of Gold, One in a Thousand, Edward the Black Prince, 
etc. 

Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton (1805-1873).—Assumed the name 





CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


289 


Lytton when he succeeded to his mother’s estate, she being of 
the house of Lytton. Educated at Cambridge. Author of many 
excellent novels: Pelham, The Last Days of Pompeii, Rienzi, The 
Last of the Barons, The Caxtons, My Novel, What will he Do with 
It ? etc. Author also of several dramas: Richelieu and The Lady 
of Lyons. 

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881).—The son of Isaac Disraeli. 
Was prime minister of England. His first novel was Vivian 
Grey. Among his best works are Contarini Fleming, Conings- 
by, and Endymion, the last written just before his death. Was 
made earl of Beaconsfield. 

William H. Ainsworth (1805-1882).—A well-known writer of 
fiction. Was for a time an editor. Author of Jack Sheppard, 
Spanish Matches, Old Court, Hilary St. Ives, Merrie England, etc. 

Samuel Warren (1807-1877).—An English jurist and novelist. 
Known chiefly as the author of Passages from the Diary of a 
Late Physician and Ten Thousand a Year. 

Rev. Charles Kingsley (1819-1875).—A writer of prose and 
poetry. Educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge. Became 
Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. Wrote Yeast, a 
Problem, Hypatia; or, New Friends with an Old Face, Westward 
Ho / Two Years Ago, besides other novels and a number of 
poems. 

Charlotte Bronte (1796-1855).—Wrote under the pseudonym 
“ Currer Bell.” One of the most original novelists of her time. 
The daughter of an Irish curate. Author of The Professor, Jane 
Eyre, Shirley, Vilette. 

Charles James Lever (1806-1872).—An Irish novelist. Was 
for a time a physician. Editor of the Dublin University Maga¬ 
zine for three years. Wrote The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, 
Charles O'Malley, Jack Hinton, The Knight of Gwynne, The Dodd 
Family Abroad, etc. 

Samuel Lover (1798-1868).—An Irish novelist and song¬ 
writer. Began life as a miniature-painter. Wrote Rory O'More, 
Handy Andy, and Treasure Trove. Author also of the songs 
“ Molly Bawn,” “ The Angels’ Whisper,” “ The Four-Leaved 
Shamrock,” etc. 

Thomas Hughes (1823-).—A Chancery barrister. Was 

educated at Rugby under Dr. Arnold, and at Oriel College, 
19 



290 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Oxford. Was a member of Parliament. Author of Tom Brown's 
School-Days, Tom Brown at Oxford, The Scouring of the White 
Horse, etc. 

William Wilkie Collins (1824-).—Both a biographer and 

a novelist. Author of the Life of William Collins; also, The 
Dead Secret, The Woman in White, No Name, Antonina, After 
Dark, The Moonstone, and a number of other novels. 

Captain Mayne Reid (1818--).—A novelist of the sen¬ 

sational school. Born in Ireland. Served in the U. S. army 
in the war with Mexico. Author of The Rifle-Rangers, The 
Scalp-Hunters, The Boy Hunters, The Forest Exiles, The Quad¬ 
roon, etc. 

Charles Reade (1814-).—An English barrister and nov¬ 

elist. Educated at Magdalen College. Author of Peg Woffing¬ 
ton, It is Never Too Late to Mend, White Lies, Jack of All Trades, 
The Cloister and the Hearth, Hard Cash, Griffith Gaunt, Foul Play, 
Put Yourself in his Place, etc. 

George MacDonald (1824-).—One of the most original 

novelists of the day. Educated at Aberdeen. Author, of David 
Elginbrod, Alec Forbes at Howglen, Annals of a Quiet Neighbor¬ 
hood, Robert Falconer, Wilfred Cumbermede, and other novels. 

Edmund Yates (1831-).—A journalist and novelist; also 

a dramatic writer and critic. Author of Kissing the Rod, 
Wrecked in Port, Nobody's Fortune, The Castaway, Broken to 
Harness, etc. 

Mrs. (Dinah Maria Mulock) Crajk (1826-).—One of the 

best of English novelists. A writer also of literature for chil¬ 
dren. Author of The Ogilvies, John Halifax, Gentleman, A Life 
for a Life, Mistress and Maid, The Woman's Kingdom, A Brave 
Lady, and other novels, as well as poems and miscellaneous 
works. 

Mrs. Oliphant (formerly Margaret Wilson), (1820 - ).— 

Both a novelist and a biographer. Author of a Life of Edward 
Irving. Wrote also Zaidee, Harry Muir, Agnes, The Minister's 
Wife, A Rose in June, and other novels. 

Anthony Trollope (1815-).—A prolific novelist. Son of 

Mrs. Frances Trollope, the novelist. Educated at Winchester 
and Harrow. Author of The Warden, Barchester Towers, The 
Bertrams, Doctor Thorne, Phineas Finn, The Vicar of Bullhamp- 










CONTEMPORANEO US WRITERS. 


291 


ton, Diamond Out Diamond, and many other works of fiction. 
Wrote also a number of works of a miscellaneous character. 

Gerald Griffin (1813-1840).—An Irish poet and novelist of 
great merit. Author oi Holland-tide, Tales of Munster Festivals, 
The Collegians, etc. Wrote also Giles Machree and other poems. 

George Augustus Sala (1826-).—A journalist and novel¬ 

ist. Editor of Temple Bar. Author of The Buddington Peerage, 
The Seven Sons of Mammon, Gaslight and Daylight in London, etc. 

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1837--).—A native of London. 

A prolific writer of fiction. Author'of Lady Audlefs Secret, Au¬ 
rora Floyd, Dead-Sea Fruit, Trail of the Serpent, etc. 

5. ESSAYISTS AND CRITICS. 

Mrs. Anna Jameson (1797-1860).—An able writer on art. 
Daughter of Murphy, the Dublin painter. Banks with Bus¬ 
kin. Author of Characteristics of Women, Sacred and Legendary 
Art, Celebrated Female Sovereigns, Handbook to the Public Galleries 
of Art, Legends of the Madonna, etc. 

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876).—A writer on political and 
social economy. Wrote also Society in America, The History of 
the Thirty Years' Peace, Retrospect of Western Travel; and two 
novels, Deer Brook and The Hour and the Man. 

William Howitt (1795-1879).—A British prose-writer and 
traveler. Born of Quaker parents. Educated in the schools 
of that Society. Author of Book of the Seasons, Rural Life in 
England, Homes and Haunts of the British Poets, etc. 

Mrs. Sarah Ellis (1812-).—Wife of a missionary to the 

South Sea Islands. Her chief works are Women of England, 
The Daughters of England, The Wives of England, The Mothers of 
England, and A Summer and Winter in the Pyrenees. 

Sir Arthur Helps (1814-1875).—An essayist and historian. 
Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. His prominent works 
are Friends in Council, Companions of my Solitude, The Claims of 
Labor, History of the Spanish Conquest of America, etc. 

John Ruskin (1819-).—An eminent art-critic. Educated 

at Christ Church College, Oxford. Professor of Art in the 
University of Oxford. Author of Modern Painters, The Seven 
Lamps of Architecture, The Stones of Venice, besides a number of 
lectures on art. 





292 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


Matthew Arnold (1822-).—A poet and essayist. Son of 

Dr. Thomas Arnold. Educated at Rugby and at Balliol Col¬ 
lege, Oxford. Author of The Strayed Reveler, and Other Poems , 
Merope, a Tragedy, Essays on Criticism, etc. 

Professor Max Muller (1823-).—A native of Germany. 

Lecturer at Oxford. Author of Chips from a German Workshop, 
Lectures on the Science of Language, Essays on Mythology, etc. 

Right Hon. William E. Gladstone (1809-).—An English 

statesman and author. Educated at Oxford. Author of Studies 
on Homer and the Homeric Age. 

6. SCIENTIFIC WRITERS. 

Mrs. Mary Somerville (1780-1872).—A distinguished writer 
on astronomy. Author of The Mechanism of the Heavens, The 
Connection of the Physical Sciences, Physical Society. 

William Whewell, D. D. (1794-1866).—A scientific writer of 
great attainments. Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cam¬ 
bridge. Wrote A History of the Inductive Sciences, The Philos¬ 
ophy of the Inductive Sciences, etc. 

Sir David Brewster (1781-1867).—A distinguished astronomer. 
Spent twenty years in editing the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. His 
principal works are a treatise on the Kaleidoscope, a treatise on 
Optics, More Worlds than One, and his Life of Sir Isaac Newton. 

Sir William Hamilton (1788-1856).—The most profound meta¬ 
physical writer of the nineteenth century. Educated at Oxford. 
His principal works are his edition of Dr. Reid’s Works and 
his Lectures, which were published after his death. 

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).—One of the ablest philosophers 
of Europe. Author of A System of Logic, Essays on Political 
Economy, Principles of Political Economy, A Treatise on Liberty, 
Comte and Positivism, etc. 

Michael Faraday (1791-1867).—A great English chemist. The 
son of a blacksmith. His chief works are Researches in Elec¬ 
tricity and popular lectures on The Chemistry of a Candle. 

Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875).—An eminent English geolo¬ 
gist. The first author who succeeded in elevating geology to 
the dignity of a science. Wrote Principles of Geology, Elements 
of Geology, Travels in North America, etc. 

Sir Roderick I. Murchison (1792-1870).—A geologist. His 





CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


293 


chief work is Siluria, the History of the Oldest Known Rocks 
containing Organic Remains. Wrote also a work on the Geology 
of Russia. 

Hugh Miller (1802-1856).—A practical geologist. For seven¬ 
teen years a stone-mason. Also a brilliant writer. Author of 
Poems by a Stone-Mason, The Old Red Sandstone, Footprints of the 
Creator, My Schools and Schoolmasters, The Testimony of the Rocks, 
The Cruise of the Betsy, and other works. 

Charles Darwin, F. R. S. (1809 —An eminent naturalist. 

Educated at Edinburgh and Cambridge. Wrote The Varia¬ 
tion of Animals and Plants under Domestication, The Origin of 
Species, The Descent of Man, Movements and Habits of Climbing 
Plants, etc. 

John Tyndall (1820-).—An eminent scientist. Born in 

Ireland. Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Insti¬ 
tution. Author of Heat considered as a Mode of Motion, Gla¬ 
ciers of the Alps, Fragments of Science, and a number of other 
scientific works. 

Herbert Spencer (1820-).—A writer on biology and psy¬ 

chology. Began life as an engineer. His chief works are 
Principles of Psychology; Essays, Scientific, Political, and Specu¬ 
lative ; Principles of Biology, etc. 

Henry Thomas Buckle (1822-1862).—A writer of great 
learning, but often incoherent. Author of A History of Civil¬ 
ization. 

Thomas Henry Huxley, F. R. S. (1825-).—A distinguish¬ 

ed naturalist. Professor of Natural History in the Royal 
School of Mines. His prominent works are Man’s Place in 
Nature, Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, Protoplasm, Lay 
Sermons, etc. 

Archibald Geikie, LL.D. (1835-).—A learned geologist. 

A Scotchman. Wrote The Story of a Boulder, Phenomena of the 
Glacial Drift of Scotland, etc. 

Richard A. Proctor (1837-).—Eminent as an astronomer.' 

Wrote Saturn and its System, The Expanse of Heaven, Light 
Science for Leisure Hours, Science Byways, etc. 

J. Norman Lockyer (1836-).—An astronomer. Lecturer 

in the University of Cambridge. Author of Elementary Lessons 
in Astronomy. 









294 STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. 


7. THEOLOGIANS. 

John H. Newman, D. D. (1801-).—An eminent theological 

writer. Educated at Trinity College, Oxford. Some of his most 
important works axe Parochial and Plain Sermons, History of the 
Arians, Historical Sketches, etc. 

Richard Whately, D. D. (1787-1863).—A theologian and politi¬ 
cal economist. Archbishop of Dublin. Educated at Oriel Col¬ 
lege, Oxford. Author of Elements of Logic, Lectures on Political 
Economy, Elements of Rhetoric, and many essays on theological 
subjects. 

R. C. Trench, D. D. (1807-).—Archbishop of Dublin. 

An eminent theologian and scholar. Graduated at Cambridge. 
Became dean of Westminster. Author of Notes on the Parables, 
Synonyms of the New Testament, Lessons on the Proverbs, Lectures 
on the Study of Words; English, Past and Present; also a number 
of poems and other works. 

Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881).—Dean of Westmin¬ 
ster. Educated at Rugby and Oxford. His principal works are 
Life of Dr. Arnold, Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians, 
Sinai and Palestine, Lectures on the Jewish Church, Historical Me¬ 
morials of Westminster Abbey, etc. 

Henry Alford, D. D. (1810-1871).—Dean of Canterbury. Poet 
and critic. Author of Poems and Poetical Fragments, A Plea for 
the Queen’s English, How to Study the New Testament, etc. 

Rev. F. W. Robertson (1816-1853).—A popular and eloquent 
clergyman. Educated at Edinburgh and Oxford. His chief 
work is four volumes of Sermons. 

Isaac Taylor (1787-1865).—Called “the greatest of English 
lay theologians since Coleridge.” Author of Elements of Thought, 
The Natural History of Enthusiasm, History of Fanaticism, etc. 

Rev. C. H. Spurgeon (1834-).—An eloquent and popular 

English preacher. Author of a number of volumes of ser¬ 
mons, Morning by Morning, Evening by Evening, John Plough¬ 
man’s Talks, etc. 

Nicholas Wiseman (1802-1865).—Born of Irish parents at 
Seville, in Spain. Educated in the English College at Rome. 
A man who possessed talents of a very high order. Was made 
a cardinal in 1850. His chief w'ork is Twelve Lectures on the 
Connection between Science and Revealed Religion. 





CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


295 


8. TRAVELERS. 

A. H. Layard (1817-) .—A famous traveler. Discovered a 

large number of specimens of Assyrian art at Nineveh. Pub¬ 
lished the results of his discoveries in Nineveh and its Remains. 

Richard Francis Burton (1820-).—Another traveler and 

explorer. Born in Ireland. Author of Personal Narrative of a 
Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, The Lake-Regions of Cen¬ 
tral Africa, Ultima Thule; or, A Summer in Iceland, and many 
other works. 

Sir Samuel White Baker '(1821-).—A traveler in Africa, 

Ceylon, etc. Known as “the elephant-hunter. ,, Author of 
The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon, Eight Years’ Wanderings in 
Ceylon; The Albert Nyanza, Great Basin of the Nile; The Nile 
Tributaries of Abyssinia. 

Dr. David Livingstone (1817-1873).—An African missionary 
and traveler who made many important discoveries in Africa. 
Author of Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, 
Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries, etc. 






Webster, Everett, 

Mitchell, 

Taylor, Holland., 

Curtis, 


Hawthorne, 
Cooper, Irving, 

Lowell, 
Emerson, Channing, 


Prescott, 

Bancroft, Motley, 


Bryant, 

Longfellow, 


W'hittier, 

Holmes. 


REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD, 
1760-1830. 


Drake, 


Halleck. 


COLONIAL PERIOD, 
1640-1760. 

Jonathan Edwards. 

AMERICAN LITERATURE. 






AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


The first book printed in America, the Bay Psalm- 
Book, was published in 1640; and this may be said to 
have been the beginning of American literature, though 
George Sandys, a resident of Virginia, is said to have 
translated Ovid’s Metamorphoses some years earlier. 
Efforts were made in both New England and Virginia, 
soon after the settlement of each, to establish schools 
and colleges, but literature was at first neglected, because 
the energies of the people were necessarily directed to •" 
the settlement and development of the country. 

In the earliest period of our national history, not only 
our schools, but also our thought and writings, were in 
a measure fashioned after English models. The litera¬ 
ture therefore was largely imitative, and it continued so 
for the first two hundred years of our country’s exist¬ 
ence. No nation, however, has witnessed a more rapid 
and at the same time more healthy literary growth than 
has America since the beginning of the present century. 

American Literature may be divided into three periods, 
as follows: 

1. The Colonial Period. From 1640 to 1760. 

2. The Revolutionary Period. From 1760 to 1830. 

3. The National Period. From 1830 to the present. 

297 



I. 


THE COLONIAL PEBIOD. 

1640-1760. 

The Colonial Age was mainly one of fighting and 
manual industry. The warfare with the Indians and 
the struggle for existence on the part of our early set¬ 
tlers left but little time or opportunity for literary cul¬ 
ture. The drama, then the most popular form of litera¬ 
ture in England, was not tolerated b} r the Puritans, and 
it did not flourish, therefore, in America. Libraries were 
few, and the means of communicating ideas but scant; 
hence the age was not favorable to literary development, 
and the growth of American literature was slow indeed. 
Owing to these causes also, learning was confined mainly 
to the clergy, and we find as a consequence that the 
literature of this period is almost wholly of a theologi¬ 
cal character. 


1. JONATHAN EDWARDS, 

1703-1758. 

The greatest writer of the Colonial Period of Ameri¬ 
can literature was Jonathan Edwards, a distinguished 
divine and metaphysician, who was born in Windsor, 
Connecticut, in the year 1703. At the-age of thirteen 
he entered Yale College, and at nineteen he became a 
preacher in New York. A year later he was elected 

298 



JONATHAN ED WARDS. 


299 


tutor in Yale, which position he filled for two years, 
discharging the duties with great success. He then 
joined his grandfather as the latter’s colleague in the 
ministry at the village of Northampton, Massachusetts, 
where his time was given wholly to study and the duties 
of his profession. 

Edwards first gained fame as a writer by his treatise 
on Original Sin. His chief work, and also his most pro¬ 
found, is An Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will. It is 
indeed a “ masterpiece of metaphysical reasoning.” 
Among his other works may be mentioned A Treatise 
concerning Religious Affections, The Nature of True Virtue , 
and The History of Redemption. 

Edwards followed his profession as a Congregational 
minister until the year 1757, when he was elected Presi¬ 
dent of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, where 
he died of small-pox in the following year. 


CRITICISM (“ CHAMBERS’S CYCLOPAEDIA”). 

Edwards was a proficient in classic and Hebrew 
literature, physics, mathematics, history, chronology, 
mental philosophy, and ethics. His greatest work was 
written in four and a half months, during which he 
carried on the correspondence of the mission, and 
preached each Sabbath two sermons in English and 
two by interpreters to two Indian congregations, be¬ 
sides catechising the children of both tribes. His ne¬ 
glect of style as a writer is to be regretted. His works 
were printed very much as first written, yet a marked 
improvement was effected in his later years. The style 
of the Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will (written, as 
has just been said, in so short a time) is considered by 
competent judges to be as correct as that of most meta¬ 
physical treatises. 


300 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


MEANING OF THE PHRASE “MORAL INABILITY.” 

Note. —The following short selection from Edwards’s treatise on 
the Freedom of the Will illustrates his style and method of thought. 

It must be observed concerning moral inability, in 
each kind of it, that the word inability is used in a sense 
very diverse from its original import.In the strict¬ 

est propriety of speech, a man has a thing in his power 
if he has it in his choice or at his election ; and a man 5 
cannot be truly said to be unable to do a thing when he 
can do it if he will. It is improperly said that a person 
cannot perform those external actions which are depend¬ 
ent on the act of the will, and which would be easily 
performed if the act of the will were present. And if 10 
it be improperly said that he cannot perform those ex¬ 
ternal voluntary actions which depend on the will, it is 
in some respects more improperly said that he is unable 
to exert the acts of the will themselves; because it is 
more evidently false, with respect to these, that he can- 15 
not if he will; for to say so is a downright contradiction: 
it is to say he cannot will if he does will. And in this 
case, not only is it true that it is easy for a man to do 
the thing if he will, but the very willing is the doing; 


Analysis. —1. concerning. Give the grammatical construction. 
3. diverse. Modernize. 

import. What is the meaning here ? 

5. Give the meaning of election in this line. 

7. What is the meaning of will as here used ? 

7-10. Analyze the sentence. 

10. Give the grammatical construction of present. 

14. exert the acts. Explain. 

15. Dispose of the word more. 

16. Give the grammatical construction of to say. 

17. not only is it true. How is not only used here ? 

18. Give the grammatical construction of to do. 

19. Parse very. 




CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


301 


when once he has willed, the thing is performed, and 20 
nothing else remains to be done. Therefore, in these 
things to ascribe a non-performance to the want of 
power or ability is not just, because the thing wanting is 
not a being able, but a being willing. There are facul¬ 
ties of mind and capacity of nature, and everything else 25 
sufficient, but a disposition; nothing is wanting but a 
will. 


A nalysis.— 20. when once he has willed, the thing is performed. Which 
is the modifying clause ? 

21. Dispose of the word else. 

23. Dispose of the word wanting. 

24. a being able, but a being willing. Give the grammatical construc¬ 
tion of being able, being willing. 

25, 26. Dispose of each of the following words: everything, else , 
sufficient. 

26, 27. nothing is wanting but a will. Dispose of nothing, wanting, 
but, will. 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 

Rev. Increase Mather (1612-1672).—A very learned man, and 
for some years President of Harvard College. Wrote Remark¬ 
able Providences. 

Rev. Cotton Mather (1663-1728).—Son of Rev. Increase 
Mather. Graduated at Harvard when only fifteen years of 
age. Wrote Magnalia Christi Americana, The Wonders of the 
Invisible World, and Memorable Providences relating to Witch¬ 
craft. 

Rev. John Eliot (1604-1690).—A missionary to the Indians. 
Translated the first Bible into the Indian dialect, which trans¬ 
lation was also the first Bible printed in America. 

Mrs. Ann Bradstreet (1612-1672).—The first female Amer¬ 
ican poet. Wife of Governor Bradstreet. Wrote The Four 
Elements. 




THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 

1760-1830. 

The American Revolution, which resulted in the es¬ 
tablishment of the United States as a nation, disturbed 
the literary as well as the political world. Most of the 
pamphlets and books written during this period had 
only a temporary interest, because they related to the 
struggle in which the colonies were engaged, and few 
of them were preserved. The orations, though spirited, 
were mainly of a political and patriotic character, and 
most of them never were printed. It was not, indeed, 
until we felt that our liberties were secure that literature 
began to receive much encouragement. The age, there¬ 
fore, has but few representatives of note. 


2. JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE, 

1795-1820. 

Joseph Rodman Drake, a poet of great promise, who 
was stricken down by consumption at the early age of 
twenty-five, was born in the city of New York on the 
7th of August, 1795. His father died while, the poet 
was yet quite young, and left the family, consisting 
of Joseph and three sisters, in comparative poverty. 
Drake, however, obtained a good education, and com¬ 
pleted the study of medicine under the direction of his 
warm personal friend, Dr. Nicholas Romayne. Soon 
after obtaining his degree, in October, 1816, he married 

302 A 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 


303 


Sarah Eckford, whose wealth placed him in affluent 
circumstances. After his marriage, in company with 
his wife and his brother-in-law, Dr. De Kay, Drake 
visited Europe. Having returned, and finding his 
health much impaired, he spent the winter of 1819 in 
New Orleans; but his fatal disease had already laid 
hold on him, and he returned to New York in the 
spring of 1820, only to die on the following 21st of 
September. 

Drake was a poet from boyhood. It is said he pro¬ 
duced excellent verses at the age of fourteen. He was 
the warm personal friend of the poet Halleck, and to¬ 
gether they published the Croakers, a series of poems, in 
the Evening Post. The series consisted of about thirty 
poems, nearly half of them, including The American 
Flag , having been written by Drake. 

The Culprit Fay, Drake’s most finished poem, was 
written in the summer of 1819. It was the result of a 
discussion in which Cooper the novelist and Fitz-Greene 
Halleck, in speaking of the adaptation of the Scottish 
streams to the uses of poetry by their romantic asso¬ 
ciations, claimed that such was not the case with Amer¬ 
ican streams. Drake, naturally a disputer, took the 
opposite view, and to prove his position set to work, 
and taking the Highlands of the Hudson as the place 
in which to locate his scene, produced in three days The 
Culprit Fay , a most exquisite poem. 


CRITICISM. 

One who knew Drake well says of him: “ His per¬ 
ception was rapid and his memory tenacious. He de¬ 
voured all the works of imagination. His favorite poets 
were Shakespeare, Burns, and Campbell. He was fond 
of discussion among his friends, and would talk by the 


304 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

hour, either side of an argument affording him equal 
opportunity.” He was a rapid composer, and wrote 
with great ease on the spur of the moment. Many of 
his productions were dashed off while he sat with his 
friends or in the company of his household. It is im¬ 
possible to say what Drake might have done had he 
lived, but certainly no American poet except Bryant 
ever wrote such musical or delicate verses at so early an 
age. Some of his creations, particularly The Culprit Fay y 
are poems of great delicacy and exquisite fancy. 

THE AMERICAN FLAG. 

i. 

When Freedom, from her mountain liight, 

Unfurled her standard to the air, 

She tore the azure robe of night, 

And set the stars of glory there. 

She mingled with its gorgeous dyes 5 

The milky baldric of the skies, 

And striped its pure, celestial white 
With streakings of the morning light; 

Then, from his mansion in the sun, 

She called her eagle bearer down, 10 

And gave into his mighty hand 
The symbol of her chosen land. 

II. 

Majestic monarch of the cloud, 

Who rear’st aloft thy regal form, 

Analysis. —1. Freedom. What figure? 

2. Unfurled her standard. What figure ? 

3. Name the figure in this line. 

6. Give the meaning of baldric, milky baldric. What figure ? 

8. streakings .... light. What figure ? 

9-12. Point out the figure in these lines. 

13. What figure in the line ? 



JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE. 


305 


To hear the tempest trumpings loud 
And see the lightning lances driven, 

When strive the warriors of the storm, 
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven, 
Child of the sun! to thee ’tis given 
To guard the banner of the free, 

To hover in the sulphur smoke, 

To ward away the battle-stroke, 

And bid its blendings shine afar, 

Like rainbows on the cloud of war, 

The harbingers of victory! 

III. 

Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly, 

The sign of hope and triumph high, 
When speaks the signal trumpet tone, 

And the long line comes gleaming on ; 
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet, 

Has dimmed the glistening bayonet, 
Each soldier eye shall brightly turn 
To where thy sky-born glories burn, 
And, as his springing steps advance, 

Catch war and vengeance from the glance. 
And when the cannon-mouthings loud 
Heave in wild wreaths the battle-shroud, 
And gory sabres rise and fall 
Like shoots of flame on midnight’s pall; 


Analysis. —18. What figure on rolls? On thunder-drum of heaven? 
19. Child of the sun ! What figure ? 

19-25. Name the subject. Name the modifiers of the subject. 

24. Parse like and rainbow. 

26. Flag of the brave ! What figure ? 

27. sign of hope. Give the grammatical construction of sign. 

31. Point out the figure in the line. 

33. Parse where. 

35. Give the mode and tense of catch. 

36. Point out the figure in the line. 

37. What is the meaning of wild and battle-shroud ? 

39. Parse Like and shoots. Point out the figure. 


15 

20 

25 

30 

35 



306 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

Then shall thy meteor glances glow, 

And cowering foes shall sink beneath 
Each gallant arm that strikes below 
That lovely messenger of death. 

iy. 

Flag of the seas! on ocean wave 
Thy stars shall glitter o’er the brave; 

When death, careering on the gale, 

Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail, 

And frighted waves rush wildly back 
Before the broadside’s reeling rack, 

Each dying wanderer of the sea 
Shall look at once to heaven and thee, 

And smile to see thy splendors fly 
In triumph o’er his closing eye. 

v. 

Flag of the free heart’s only home I 
By angel hands to valor given, 

Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues were born in heaven. 

For ever float that standard sheet I 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
With Freedom’s soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom’s banner waving o’er us ? 


Analysis. —40. meteor glances. What figure. 

42. Is the word below a good word here ? 

42, 43. Give the grammatical construction of that and That. 

44. Point out the figure in the line. 

48. frighted waves. What figure ? 

49. What example of alliteration ? 

52. Give the meaning of fly in this line. 

54. Point out the figures in the line. 

57. hues were born , etc. What figure ? 

58. standard sheet } etc. What figure ? Give the mode of float. 

59. Parse but. 


40 

45 

50 

55 

60 



3. FITZ-GREENE HALLECK, 

• 1795-1867. 

Fitz-Greene Halleck, the poet, was bom at Guil¬ 
ford, Connecticut, in August, 1795. Like his personal 
friend, Drake, he wrote verses as early as the age of 
fourteen. At eighteen he became a clerk in a banking- 
house in New York, and afterward he was bookkeeper 
in the private office of John Jacob Astor, the great fur- 
merchant, with whom he remained until the death of 
that millionaire; soon after which he retired to Guil¬ 
ford, where he remained up to the time of his death, 
in 1867. 

Halleck gained his first literary celebrity in connec¬ 
tion with the poems written by himself .and Drake, 
which appeared over the pseudonym Croaker & Co. in 
the Evening Post in the year 1819. Most*of these poems 
were of a personal character, in which the poets satirized 
the editors, politicians, aldermen, and small theatrical 
personages of the day. But among them were also 
pieces of true poetic character, such as The World is 
Bright before Thee and There is an Evening Twilight of 
the Heart. 

In 1821, Halleck published a satirical squib entitled 
Fanny , which is written in the style of Byron’s Don 
Juan , and which satirizes the political as well as the 
fashionable literary enthusiasm of the day. It was a 
great hit, but owed its permanent success to the music 
of its verses. After Halleck’s visit to England in 1822 
he produced his verses on Calnwick Castle. These, with 


308 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


his Marco Bozzaris and his lines on Burns, with other 
poems, were issued in book form in 1827. 

CRITICISM. 

The versification of Halleck’s poems is smooth and 
harmonious; indeed, it is almost perfect; and this is 
characteristic of his writings, whether he deals with the 
simplest subject or pours out in glowing effulgence the 
most brilliant thoughts on the most exalted themes. He 
displays also a geniality of feeling and a delicacy of 
humor which make his writings very pleasing. It is 
to be regretted that Halleck, who wrote so well, wrote 
so little. 

MARCO BOZZARIS. 

Note. —Bozzaris was a Greek patriot who fell in an attack upon 
the Turkish camp at Laspi, the site of the ancient Plataea, August 
20, 1823, and expired in the moment of victory, exclaiming, “ To 
die for liberty is a pleasure, not a pain.” 

At midnight, in his guarded tent, 

The Turk was dreaming of the hour 

When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, 

Should tremble at his power: 

In dreams, through camp and court, he bore 5 

The trophies of a conqueror; 

In dreams his song of triumph heard; 

Then wore his monarch’s signet-ring: 

Then pressed that monarch’s throne—a king; 

As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, 10 

As Eden’s garden-bird. 


Analysis.—3. When Greece , etc. What figure? Parse knee and 
bent. 

5, 6. What kind of sentence—periodic or loose ? 

7. Name the subject of the clause. 

8. Name the subject in this line, signet-ring. What figure ? 

9. Parse king. 

10, 11. Write in prose form. Give the case of garden-bird . 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 


309 


At midnight, in the forest shades, 

Bozzaris ranged his Suliote band, 

True as the steel of their tried blades, 

Heroes in heart and hand. 

There had the Persian’s thousands stood; 

There had the glad earth drunk their blood 
On old Plataea’s day: 

And now there breathed that haunted air 
The sons of sires who conquered there, 

With arms to strike, and souls to dare, 

As quick, as far, as they. 

An hour passed on—the Turk awoke; 

That bright dream was his last ; 

He woke—to hear his sentries shriek, 

“ To arms ! they come ! the Greek ! the Greek I” 
He woke—to die ’midst flame and smoke, 

And shout, and groan, and sabre-stroke, 

And death-shots falling thick and fast 
As lightnings from the mountain-cloud; 

And heard, with voice as trumpet loud, 


Analysis. —14. Parse the word True. 

15. Parse Heroes. What is the meaning of heart and hand here ? 

17. earth had drunk. What figure ? 

18. old Plataza’s day. This refers to the victory of the Lacedae¬ 
monian Greeks over the Persians in the year 479 b. c. Platsea was a 
city in the western part of Boeotia, near Attica. 

19. Parse the word there. 

20. Parse the word there. 

22. To what does as quick refer ? also as far t Give the ante¬ 
cedent and the case of they. 

25, 26. Give the full object of shriek. 

26. To armsl To what is this phrase equivalent? Give the 
grammatical construction of Greek. 

29. Give the grammatical construction of thick and fast. 

30. In what case is lightnings ? Name the antecedent of the ad¬ 
junct from mountain-cloud. 

31. Parse trumpet and loud. 


15 

20 

25 

30 



310 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Bozzaris cheer his band: 

“ Strike—till the last armed foe expires; 

Strike—for your altars and your fires; 

Strike—for the green graves of your sires; 

God—and your native land !” 

They fought—like brave men, long and well; 

They piled that ground with Moslem slain ; 

They conquered, but Bozzaris fell, 

Bleeding at every vein. 

His few surviving comrades saw 

His smile, when rang their proud hurrah, 

And the red field was won: 

Then saw in death his eyelids close, 

Calmly as to a night’s repose, 

Like flowers at set of sun. 

Come to the bridal-chamber, Death ; 

Come to the mother when she feels, 

For the first time, her first-born’s breath; 

Come, when the blessed seals 
Which close the pestilence are broke, 

And crowded cities wail its stroke; 

Come, in consumption’s ghastly form, 

The earthquake’s shock, the ocean-storm, 

Come when the heart beats high and warm 

Analysis.— 32. Give the grammatical construction of cheer. 

33, 34, 35, 36. What is the force of the dash in each line ? 

37. Parse like and men. 

38. Who were the Moslems t 

40. What does this line modify ? 

43. What is the meaning of red field here ? 

44. What is the subject of the clause in this line ? Dispose of 
the word close. 

45. Supply the ellipsis. 

46. Parse like and flowers. 

51. Justify the use of are broke. 

52. Name the figure in the line. 

53. What figure in this line ? 

55. Give the grammatical construction of high and warm. 


35 

40 

45 

50 

55 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 


311 


With banquet song, and dance, and wine; 

And thou art terrible; the tear, 

The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, 

And all we know, or dream, or fear 

Of agony, are thine. 60 

But to the hero, when his sword 
Has won the battle for the free, 

Thy voice sounds like a prophet’s word, 

And in its hollow tones are heard 
The thanks of millions yet to be. <65 

Come, when his task of Fame is wrought, 

Come, with her laurel-leaf, blood-bought, 

Come in her crowning hour; and then 
Thy sunken eye’s unearthly light 

To him is welcome as the sight 70 

Of sky and stars to prisoned men; 

Thy grasp is welcome as the hand 
Of brother in a foreign land ; 

Thy summons welcome as the cry 

That told the Indian isles were nigh 75 

To the world-seeking Genoese, 

When the land-wind, from woods of palm, 

And orange-groves, and fields of balm, 

Blew o’er the Haytian seas. 


Analysis. —57, 58. Point out the figures. 

59. all we know. Supply the ellipsis. 

60. Give the grammatical construction of thine . 

61-63. Write in prose order. 

64. hollow tones. What figure ? 

65. Dispose of yet and to he. 

66. What is the form of the verb wrought t 

67. Name the antecedent of her. Point out the figure in the 
line. 

70. is. For what tense is this a substitute ? What is the case of 
sight ? 

72. In what case is hand t 

75. Parse nigh. Why called Indian isles ? 

76. Who is meant in this line ? 


s 



312 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

Bozzaris! with the storied brave 80 

Greece nurtured in her glory’s time, 

Best thee—there is no prouder grave, 

Even in her own proud clime. 

She wore no funeral weeds for thee 
Nor bade the dark hearse wave its plume, 85 

Like torn branch from death’s leafless tree, 

In sorrow’s pomp and pageantry, 

The heartless luxury of the tomb. 

But she remembers thee as one 

Long loved and for a season gone; 90 

For thee her poet’s lyre is wreathed, 

Her marble wrought, her music breathed; 

For thee she rings the birthday-bells, 

Of thee her babes’ first lisping tells; 

For thine her evening prayer is said 95 

At palace couch and cottage bed; 

Her soldier, closing with the foe, 

Gives, for thy sake, a deadlier blow; 

His plighted maiden, when she fears 

For him, the joy of her young years, 100 

Thinks of thy fate and checks her tears; 

And she, the mother of thy boys, 

Though in her eye and faded cheek 
Is read the grief she will not speak, 

The memory of her buried joys, 105 


Analysis. —80. What is the meaning of storied brave ? 
80-83. Point out the figure in these lines. 

81. Supply the ellipsis. Greece nurtured. What figure? 

82. prouder grave. Give the meaning. 

83. Even is an emphatic adverb, modifying the clause. 

84. funeral weeds. What figure ? 

85. wave its plume. What figure ? 

88. Parse luxury. 

89. Name the antecedents of she and thee. Parse one. 

91. What is the meaning of poet’s lyre ? 

96. Point out the figure in the line. 

100. Give the case of joy. 



CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


313 


And even she who gave thee birth 
Will, by their pilgrim-circled hearth, 
Talk of thy doom without a sigh; 

For thou art Freedom’s now, and Fame’s, 
One of the few, the immortal names 
That were not born to die. 


Analysis. —107. pilgrim-circled hearth. What is the meaning? 
111. Of what is not a modifier? 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 

1. POETS. ' 

Philip Freneau (1752-1832).—A popular political poet of the 
Revolutionary^ Period. Educated at Princeton. A classmate of 
Madison. 

Francis Hopkinson (1738-1791).—A witty poet. Educated at 
the University of Pennsylvania. Became a judge of the United 
States District Court in 1790. Author of The Pretty Story, The 
Battle of the Kegs, etc. 

John Trumbull (1750-1831).—A writer of satires. Educated 
at Yale. Became a judge of the Superior Court in 1801. Au¬ 
thor of McFingal, The Progress of Dullness, etc. 

Joseph Hopkinson (1770-1842).—Son of Francis Hopkinson. 
A lawyer by profession. Educated at the University of Penn¬ 
sylvania. Was made judge of the United States District Court 
in 1828. Author of Hail Columbia. 

Clement C. Moore (1779-1863).—A Professor of Oriental and 
Greek Literature. Graduated at Columbia College. Author of 
A Visit from St. Nicholas and many other poems, also, a Hebrew 
and English Lexicon. 

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843).—A lawyer at Washington, 
D. C. Educated at St. John’s College, Annapolis. Wrote Star- 
Spangled Banner and other poems. 

Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842).—A printer. One of the 
founders of the New York Mirror. Wrote The Old Oaken 
Bucket and a number of dramatic pieces. 


110 




314 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Mr 9 . Maria Brooks (1795-1845).—Pronounced by Southey 
“ the most impassioned and most imaginative of all poetesses.” 
Her chief poem is Zophiel; or, The Bride of Seven. 

2. PROSE-WRITERS. 

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).—One of the greatest phil¬ 
osophers and statesmen of his age. Rose from a tallow- 
chandler’s boy to some of the highest positions under the 
government. Among his chief works are his Autobiography, 
his Essays, etc. 

John Adams (1735-1826).—Second President of the United 
States. Educated at Harvard. One of the framers of the 
Declaration of Independence. Author of many political and 
state papers. 

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826).—Third President of the United 
States. A great scholar and statesman. Author of Notes on 
Virginia. Wrote also the “ Declaration of Indpendence.” 

Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813).—A medical writer of great 
reputation. Educated at Princeton. Author of Medical In¬ 
quiries and Observations and many miscellaneous essays. 

Lindley Murray (1745-1826).—Author of the first English 
Grammar; also of the English Reader. Wrote also a num¬ 
ber of poems. Born near Swatara, Pennsylvania. 

Hugh H. Brackenridge (1748-1816).—An eminent politician 
and judge. Educated at Princeton. Was also a minister. 
Author of Modern Chivalry and other works. 

Timothy Dwight (1752-1817).—Both a poet and a theologian. 
Educated at Yale. Became President of Yale College. His 
chief prose work is Theology Explained and Defended. Among 
his best poems are Columbia and Greenfield Hill. 

John Witherspoon (1722-1794).—One of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. Became President of Princeton 
College in 1768. Educated at Edinburgh. Author of Essays 
on Important Subjects and other works. 

Dr. David Ramsay (1749-1815).—An historian of the Revolu¬ 
tion. Educated at Princeton. Resided mostly in South Caro¬ 
lina. Author of History of South Carolina, History of the United 
States, Life of Washington, etc. 

James Madison (1751-1836).—Fourth President of the United 


CON TEMP ORANEO US WRITERS. 315 

States. Celebrated as a statesman. Educated at Princeton. 
His chief literary works are his papers in The Federalist. 

Alexander Wilson (1766-1813).—An ornithologist. Born in 
Scotland. Wrote both prose and poetry. Author of an extend¬ 
ed work on ornithology. 

Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810).—The first American 
novelist. He was of Quaker descent. Wrote Wieland, Alarm, 
Arthur Mervyn, etc. 

Archibald Alexander (1772-1851).—A distinguished theolo¬ 
gian. Became President of Hampden-Sidney College. Was 
for thirty-eight years Professor of Theology at Princeton. Au¬ 
thor of Evidences of Christian Religion, History of the Israelitish 
Nation, etc. 

John Marshall (1755-1835).—A celebrated jurist. Chief-jus¬ 
tice of the United States. Author of The Life of Washington. 

Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804).—A soldier, statesman, and 
jurist. Secretary of the Treasury under Washington. Was 
killed in a duel by Aaron Burr. His literary fame rests on his 
contributions to The Federalist. 

William Wirt (1772-1834).—An American lawyer. Attorney- 
general of the United States from 1817 to 1829. Author of 
Letters of a British Spy and Sketches of the Life and Character 
of Patrick Henry. 

John J. Audubon (1780-1851).—Celebrated as a writer on 
ornithology. His chief work is The Birds of America, in four 
volumes. 

Judge James Kent (1763-1847).—Distinguished as a writer on 
law. Educated at Yale. Wrote Commentaries on American Law. 

James K. Paulding (1779-1860).—Secretary of the Navy under 
President Van Buren. Author of The Diverting History of John 
Bull and Brother Jonathan, Merry Tales of the Three Wise Men 
of Gotham, Westward Ho ! and many other works. 

Joseph Story (1779-1845).—A celebrated American jurist. 
Educated at Harvard. Became a judge of the United States 
Supreme Court. Author of Commentary on the Constitution of 
the United States and many treatises on legal matters. 

Washington Allston (1779-1843).—Celebrated as artist, poet, 
and prose-writer. Author of The Sylphs of the Seasons, Romance 
of Monaldi, Lectures on Art, etc. 


THE NATIONAL PEEIOD. 


1830 to the Present Time. 

From 1830 onward America has shown a rapid lite¬ 
rary development such as was never before known in 
her history. Libraries have rapidly increased; the 
newspapers and other periodicals have added largely to 
the dissemination of knowledge; a healthy literary sen¬ 
timent has grown up; a literary atmosphere has been 
created which has proved congenial to authorship; and 
an active demand for more and better reading-matter 
has developed the talent of American writers. As a 
result, works of great merit both in prose and in poetry 
have been produced with great rapidity, and book-mak¬ 
ing has become one of the recognized industries of our 
country. 

To give an account of all the writers of merit that 
represent the National Period of our literature would be 
impossible. The following are therefore selected as rep¬ 
resentatives, the other chief writers being included under 
the head of “ Contemporaneous Writers:” 

1. Poets—Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes. 

2. Historians—Bancroft, Prescott, Motley. 

3. Essayists—Channing, Emerson, Lowell. 

4. Novelists—Irving, Cooper, Hawthorne. 

5. Journalists—Curtis, Willis. 

6. Miscellaneous Writers—Taylor, Holland, Mit¬ 
chell. 

7. Orators—Webster, Everett. 

316 


4. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, 

1794-1878. 

William Cullen Bryant, one of America’s greatest 
poets, was born at Cummington, Hampshire count)", 
Massachusetts, on the 3d of November, 1794. His 
father, who was a physician, was a man of considerable 
literary culture, and, it is said, taught his son “ the value 
of correctness and compression, and enabled him to dis¬ 
tinguish between true poetic enthusiasm and fustian.” 
Bryant gave evidence of his poetic ability in very early 
life, having written verses when but nine years of age. 
At the age of ten, we are informed, he wrote a little 
poem which was spoken at school, and which was after¬ 
ward published in a county newspaper. 

The Embargo , which was his first published volume, 
was written when he was but fourteen. It was publish¬ 
ed in Boston in 1809. 

Bryant was educated at Williams College, which he 
left without taking his degree, and began the study of 
law. After having been admitted to the bar he practiced 
his profession for a year at Plainfield, and then at Great 
Barrington, Mass., but in 1825 he abandoned the law for 
literature, which he made his profession for life. 

He first edited the New York Review and Athenaeum 
Magazine , a monthly periodical, which in the following 
year was merged in a new work of similar character 
called The United States Review and Literary Gazette, of 
which also Bryant became editor. In 1826 he became 
editor of the New York Evening Post , which position he 
held to the time of his death, in 1878. 


317 


318 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Bryant’s celebrity as a poet was established by Thana- 
topsis, published in 1816, but written when the author 
was only eighteen years of age. This exquisite poem 
was published in the North American Review, and at 
once attracted great attention. It immediately placed 
its author in the foremost rank of American poets—an 
honorable place which he has ever since maintained. 

His next notable attempt was his poem, The Ages, de¬ 
livered at Harvard in 1821. Many of Bryant’s best- 
known poems appeared in the periodicals of which he 
was editor, though others were contributed to other 
periodicals of the day. He was also a prose-writer of 
great force, having a clear, concise style, which charac¬ 
terized every article he wrote, and with which neither 
hurry, excitement, nor the press of business was per¬ 
mitted to interfere. 

Among Bryant’s best works are his poems, Thanatop- 
sis, The Death of the Flowers, Forest Hymn, The Evening 
Wind, Green River, Song of the Saviour, The Planting of 
the Apple Tree, Waiting at the Gate, and The Flood of Years. 

In addition to his editorials in the Post, his chief prose 
works were his contributions to the Talisman, Letters of a 
Traveler, and an excellent translation of Homer, in four 
volumes. 

Bryant, like Wordsworth, was a poet of Nature, and 
by some he has been styled “the American Words¬ 
worth,” though in purity of diction and dignity and 
elegance of style he is very much superior to his Eng¬ 
lish compeer. 

Bryant’s country home for many years of the latter 
part of his life was at Roslyn, on Long Island, a pictur¬ 
esque spot affording in itself excellent themes for the 
poet. He died on the 12th of June, 1878, from the 
effects of a stroke which he received just after having 
delivered an oration in Central Park, New York, on the 


WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 


319 


occasion of erecting a statue to the Italian patriot Maz- 
zini. 

CRITICISM BY G. W. CURTIS. 

His poetry is intensely and distinctively American. 
He was a man of scholarly accomplishment, familiar 
with other languages and literature. But there is no 
tone or taste of’anything not peculiarly American in 
his poetry. It is as characteristic as the wine of the 
Catawba grape, and could have been written only in 
America by an American naturally sensitive to what¬ 
ever is most distinctively American. Bryant’s fame as 
a poet was made half a century before he died, and the 
additions to his earlier verse, while they did not lessen, 
did not materially increase, his reputation. But the 
mark so early made was never effaced, either by him¬ 
self or others. Younger men grew by his side into great 
and just fame. But what Shelley says of love is as true 
of renown: 

“ True love in this differs from gold and clay, 

That to divide is not to take away.” 

The tone of Bryant remained, and remained distinct, 
individual, and unmistakable. Nature, as he said in 
Thanatopsis, speaks “ a various language ” to her lovers. 
But what she said to him was plainly spoken, and clear¬ 
ly heard and perfectly repeated. His art was exquisite. 

THANATOPSIS. 

To him who in the love of Nature holds 
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 
A various language: for his gayer hours 

Analysis. —1-3. Is the sentence periodic or loose? Rewrite in 
prose order. Point out the figure in the first line. 

2. "VVhat is the meaning of visible forms ? 

3. A various language. Explain by the following lines, gayer 
hours. What figure ? 



320 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


She has a voice of gladness, and a smile 

And eloquence of beauty, and she glides 

Into his darker musings with a mild 

And healing sympathy, that steals away 

Their sharpness ere he is aware. When thoughts 

Of the last bitter hour come like a blight 

Over thy spirit, and sad images 

Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, 

And breathless darkness, and the narrow house, 

Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart,— 

Go forth under the open sky, and list 
To Nature’s teachings, while from all around— 

Earth and her waters, and the depths of air— 

Comes a still voice. Yet a few days, and thee 
The all-beholding sun shall see no more 
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, 

Where thy pale form is laid with many tears, 

Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist 

Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim 

Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again, 

And, lost each human trace, surrendering up 

Analysis.—7. healing sympathy. What is the meaning ? 

8. Their sharpness. What figure ? Parse ere and aware. 

9. the last hitter hour. What figure ? Parse like and blight. 

11. stern agony. What figure ? What figures on shroud and pall t 

13. Parse sick. 

14. Dispose of the word forth. Give a different form for list. 

15. Give the construction of all and around. 

16. Of what is this line explanatory ? What figure in the line ? 

17. Parse the word days. 

18. Give the meaning of more. 

19. In his course. What figure ? Why nor yet instead of neither t 
nor yet. With what is this correlative ? 

19-22. nor yet .... image. Write in prose form. 

20. Give the grammatical construction of Where. 

22. What figure in the line ? 

23. Thy growth. What figure ? to be resolved , etc. Explain. 

24. Give the grammatical construction of lost and trace, surrender¬ 
ing up, etc. Criticise. Of what is the phrase an adjunct ? 


5 

10 

15 

20 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 321 

Thine individual being, shalt thou go 
To mix for ever with the elements— 

To be a brother to the insensible rock, 

And to the sluggish clod which the rude swain 
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak 
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould. 

Yet not to thine eternal resting-place 
Shalt thou retire alone,—nor couldst thou wish 
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down 
With patriarchs of the infant world—with kings, 

The powerful of the earth—the wise, the good, 

Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, 

All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills 
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,—the vales 
Stretching in pensive quietness between; 

The venerable woods; rivers that move 

In majesty, and the complaining brooks 

That make the meadows green; and, poured round all, 

Old.Ocean’s gray and melancholy waste,— 

Are but the solemn decorations all 

Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun, 

The planets, all the infinite host of heaven, 

Are shining on the sad abodes of death 
Through the still lapse of ages. All that, tread 
The globe are but a handful to the tribes 

Analysis.—25. What is the subject of shalt go ? 

27. a brother , etc. What figure ? 

28. What is the meaning of rude swain ? 

29. Explain poetic license on the use of share. 

30. Point out the figures in the line. 

32. Dispose of alone. 

35. Scan the line and criticise. 

38. rock-ribbed. What figure ? 

44. Name the subjects of are. Parse but and all. 
solemn decorations. What figure ? 

45. The golden sun. What figure ? 

47. Name the figure in this line. 

49. What is the grammatical use of but? Give the meaning of 
tribes. 


25 

30 

35 

40 

45 


21 



322 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


That slumber in its bosom. Take the wings 
Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce, 

Or lose thyself in the continuous woods 
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound 
Save his own dashings,—yet the dead are there; 

And millions in those solitudes, since first 
The flight of years began, have laid them down 
In their last sleep: the dead reign there alone. 

So shalt thou rest; and what if thou withdraw 
Unheeded by the living, and no friend 
Take note of thy departure ? All that breathe 
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh 
When thou art gone; the solemn brood of care 
Plod on; and each one, as before, will chase 
His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave 
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come 
And make their bed with thee. As the long train 
Of ages glides away, the sons of men— 

The youth in life’s green spring, and he who goes 

Analysis. —50. Point out the figure. 

50, 51. Take .... pierce. Where is Barca? What objections are 
there to the readings sometimes given, “ pierce the Barcan wilder¬ 
ness” and “traverse Barca’s desert sands”? 

53. Oregon. What is the present name of this river ? 

54. What figure in the line ? 

55-57. Point out the figures. 

56. have laid them, down. Give the grammatical construction. 

58. What if, etc. Supply the ellipsis. 

58, 59. Some readings give “ withdraw in silence fromothers, 
“ if thou shalt fall unnoticed.” What are the objections to these ? 

60. Give the tense of Take. Why that in preference to who ? 

62. solemn brood of care. What figure ? 

63. as before. Supply ellipsis. Parse before. 

64. favorite phantom. What figure? 

shall leave. Should the auxiliary be shall or will ? 

66. make their bed. Elucidate, and name the figure. 

67. The poet originally wrote glide instead of glides. 

68. green spring. Criticise. 

68-71. Mention specifications of sons of men. 


50 

55 

60 

65 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 


323 


70 


75 


80 


Analysis. —70, 71. This was originally written as follows: 

“ And the sweet babe, and the gray-headed man.” 

71. Give the grammatical construction of cut off. 

72. Dispose of one by one. 

74-79. Name the modifiers of live; the modifiers of go; the mod¬ 
ifiers of summons ; the modifiers of caravan. 

76. where each, etc. What does the clause modify? 

77. Name the figure in the line. 

78. Give the mode of go. Parse like and quarry-slave. What does 
at night modify ? 

79. Scourged to his dungeon. What does the phrase modify? 
sustained, etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

80. approach thy grave, etc. What does this clause modify ? 

81. 82. like one, etc. What do these lines modify ? 


In the full strength of years, matron and maid, 

The bowed with age, the infant in the smiles 
And beauty of its innocent age cut off— 

Shall, one by one, be gathered to thy side, 

By those who, in their turn, shall follow them. 

So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan that moves 
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 

Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 



5. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, 

1807 - 1882 . 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a distinguished 
writer of both prose and poetry, was born in Portland, 
Maine, on the 27th of February, 1807. He was edu¬ 
cated at Bowdoin College, where he graduated in the 
same class with Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1825. 

After his graduation he studied law for a short time 
in the office of his uncle, the Hon. Stephen Longfellow, 
but on his appointment in 1826 to the professorship of 
Modern Languages and Literature in the college from 
which he had graduated, he went to Europe, where he 
spent three years in travel and study, preparing him¬ 
self for the duties of his position. On his return he 
delivered a course of lectures at Bowdoin, and also con¬ 
tributed a number of valuable articles to the North Amer¬ 
ican Review. 

Longfellow held his position at Bowdoin until 1835, 
'when he was chosen Professor of Modern Languages and 
Literature in Harvard College. He then made a second 
tour of Europe, to fit himself the more thoroughly for 
his work, this time visiting Denmark, Sweden, Holland, 
and Switzerland. He held the position at Harvard until 
the year 1854, when he reigned his professorship. 

Longfellow wrote anti published a number of accept¬ 
able verses in the United States Literary Gazette as early 
as 1825, but his best work was done later in life. In 
1835 he published a prose work, Outre Mer; or , Sketches 
from Beyond the Sea, which from its elegance of diction 
and fastidious scholarship at once attracted attention. 

324 


HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 325 


Four years later he published his second prose work, 
Hyperion: a Romance. Longfellow’s first volume of 
poetry, entitled Voices of the Night , which included such 
favorites as the “ Psalm of Life,” “ Midnight Mass for 
the Dying Year,” and others, was issued also in 1839. 
Following this volume, there came in 1841 Ballads and 
Other Poems, and then, in rapid succession, Poems on 
Slavery, The Spanish Student , a tragedy; The Poets and 
Poetry of Europe, The Belfry of Bruges, Evangeline, an ex¬ 
tended poem in hexameter verse; Kavanagh, a prose 
story; The Seaside and Fireside, a collection of short 
poems; The Golden Legend , The Song of Hiawatha , an 
American Indian tale; Miles Standish, Tales of a Way- 
side Inn, Flower de Luce; a translation of Dante, The 
Divine Tragedy; The Three Books of Song, The Masque of 
Pandora , Keramos , and others. 

Some of Longfellow’s most popular poems are Evan¬ 
geline, The Old Clock on the Stairs, Excelsior, Skeleton in 
Armor, The Builders, The Building of the Ship, Resig¬ 
nation, The Hanging of the Crane, The Courtship of Miles 
Standish, and Paul Revere’s Ride. 

Mr. Longfellow’s house at Cambridge is the one once 
occupied by Washington as his head-quarters. The 
poet was twice married: his first wife died in Holland 
in 1835, and his second was burned to death in 1861, 
her clothes having taken fire accidentally while she 
was playing with her children. The poet died at his 
home in Cambridge, March 24, 1882. 


CRITICISM BY GEORGE W. CURTIS. 

Longfellow’s literary career has been contemporary 
with the sensational school, but he has been entirely 
untainted by it. The literary style of an intellectually 
introverted age or author will always be somewhat ob- 


326 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


scure, however gorgeous; but Longfellow’s mind takes 
a simple, child-like hold of life, and his style never be¬ 
trays the inadequate effort to describe thoughts or emo¬ 
tions that are but vaguely perceived, which is the cha¬ 
racteristic of the best sensational writing. Indeed, there 
is little poetry by the eminent contemporary masters 
which is so ripe and racy as his. He does not make 
rhetoric stand for passion, nor vagueness for profundity; 
nor, on the other hand, is he such a voluntary and ma¬ 
licious “ Bohemian ” as to conceive that either in life or 
letters a man is released from the plain rules of moral¬ 
ity. Indeed, he used to be accused of preaching in his 
poetry by gentle critics, who held that Elysium was to 
be found in an oyster-cellar, and that intemperance was 
the royal prerogative of genius. His literary scholar¬ 
ship, also his delightful familiarity with the pure lit¬ 
erature of all languages and times, must rank Long¬ 
fellow among the learned poets. 

THE LAUNCH OF THE SHIP. 

Note. —This selection is taken from Longfellow’s Seaside and • 
Fireside poems. 

All is finished; and at length 
Has come the bridal-day 
Of beauty and of strength. 

To-day the vessel shall be launched! 

With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched; 5 

And o’er the bay, 

Slowly, in all his splendors dight, 

The great sun rises to behold the sight. 


Analysis. —1-3. Point out the figure. 

3. To what do beauty and strength refer ? 

5. fleecy clouds. What figure ? 

7. What is the meaning of dight ? Give a synonym. 

8. Point out the figure. 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 327 


The ocean old, 

Centuries old, 

Strong as youth, and as uncontrolled, 

Paces restless to and fro 
• Up and down the sands of gold. 

His beating heart is not at rest; 

And far and wide 
With ceaseless flow, 

His beard of snow 

Heaves with the heaving of his breast. 

He waits impatient for his bride. 

There she stands, 

With her foot upon the sands, 

Decked with flags and streamers gay, 

In honor of her marriage-day; 

Her snow-white signals fluttering, blending, 
Round her like a veil descending, 

Ready to be 

The bride of the gray old sea. 

On the deck another bride 
Is standing by her lover’s side. 

Shadows from the flags and shrouds, 

Like the shadows cast by clouds, 

Broken by many a sunny fleck, 

Fall around them on the deck. 


Analysis. —9-19. What extended figure? 

12. Dispose of to and fro and restless. 

15-18. Reconstruct the periodic sentence. 

17. beard of snow. What figure ? 

18. Parse impatient. What figure in the line ? 
20-27. What extended figure in these lines ? 

24. snow-white signals. What figure ? 

25. Point out the figure in the line. 

31. Like the shadows, etc. What figure? 

33. Name the subject of Fall. 


10 

15 

20 

25 

30 



328 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


The prayer is said, 

The service read ; 

The joyous bridegroom bows his head; 
And in tears the good old master 
Shakes the brown hand of his son, 

Kisses his daughter’s glowing cheek 
In silence, for he cannot speak; 

And ever faster 

Down his own the tears begin to run. 

The worthy pastor— 

The shepherd of that wandering flock 
That has the ocean for its wold, 

That has the vessel for its fold, 

Leaping ever from rock to rock— 

Spake, with accents mild and clear, 
Words of warning, words of cheer. 

But tedious to the bridegroom’s ear. 

He knew the chart 
Of the sailor’s heart,— 

All its pleasures and its griefs ; 

All its shallows and rocky reefs; 

All those secret currents that flow 
With such resistless undertow, 

And lift and drift, with terrible force, 

The will from its moorings and its course. 
Therefore he spake, and thus said he: 

“ Like unto ships far off at sea, 

Outward or homeward bound, are we. 
Before, behind, and all around, 

Floats and swings the horizon’s bound; 


Analysis.—35. Supply the ellipsis. 

44. Point out the figures in the line. 

45. What is the meaning of wold ? What figure in the line ? 

46. What is the meaning of this line ? 

48. Give the subject of Spake. 

50. tedious to the bridegroom!s ear. Is this figurative or literal ? 
51-58. What figure in these lines ? 

59, 60. Point out the figure. 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 329 


Seems at its distant rim to rise 

And climb the crystal wall of the skies, 

And then again to turn and sink, 

As if we could slide from its outer brink. 

Ah! it is not the sea, 

It is not the sea, that sinks and shelves, 

But ourselves 

That rock and rise 

With endless and uneasy motion,— 

Now touching the very skies, 

Now sinking into the depths of ocean. 

Ah ! if our souls but poise and swing 
Like the compass in its brazen ring, 

Ever level and ever true 

To the toil and the task we have to do, 

We shall sail securely, and safely reach 
The Fortunate Isles, on whose shining beach 
The sights we see and the sounds we hear 
Will be those of joy, and not of fear.” 

Then the master, 

• With a gesture of command, 

Waved his hand; 

And, at the word, 

Loud and sudden there was heard, 

All around them and below, 

The sound of hammers, blow on blow, 

Knocking away the shores and spurs. 

And see! she stirs! 

She starts ! she moves! she seems to feel 
The thrill of life along her keel! 

Analysis. —65. crystal wall , etc. What figure ? 

70. Parse ourselves. 

73, 74. Point out the figure. 

76. Point out the figure. 

79. securely and safely. Why are these allowable? How would 
they be written in prose? 

90. knocking away, etc. What does it modify ? 

91-96. Point out the extended figure. 


65 

70 

75 

80 

85 

90 



330 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


And, spurning with her foot the ground, 
With one exulting, joyous bound 
She leaps into the ocean’s arms ! 

And lo! from the assembled crowd 
There rose a shout prolonged and loud, 

That to the ocean seemed to say, 

“ Take her, O bridegroom old and gray! 

Take her to thy protecting arms, 

With all her youth and all her charms !” 

How beautiful she is! How fair 
She lies within those arms that press 
Her form with many a soft caress 
Of tenderness and watchful care! 

Sail forth into the sea, O ship ! 

Through wind and wave right onward steer! 
The moistened eye, the trembling lip, 

Are not the signs of doubt or fear. 

Sail forth into the sea of life, 

O gentle, loving, trusting wife! 

And safe from all adversity 
Upon the bosom of that sea 
Thy comings and thy goings be! 

For gentleness and love and trust 
Prevail o’er angry wave and gust; 

And in the wreck of noble lives 
Something immortal still survives. 


Analysis. —97-102. What continuous figure in these lines. Name 
the modifiers of shout. 

103. Give the grammatical construction of fair. 

107. Dispose of the word forth. 

108. Parse the word right. 

111-119. What extended figure in these lines? 

115. Parse be, comings , and goings. 

117. Point out the figure in this line. 

118. wreck of noble lives. What figure ? 


95 

100 

105 

110 

115 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 331 


Thou, too, sail on, 0 Ship of State I 
Sail on, O Union strong and great! 
Humanity with all its fears, 

With all the hopes of future years, 

Is hanging breathless on thy fate. 

We know what master laid thy keel; 

What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel; 
Who made each mast and sail and rope; 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat; 

In what a forge and what a heat 
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope. 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock: 

’Tis of the wave, and not the rock; 

’Tis but the flapping of the sail, 

And not a rent made by the gale. 

In spite of rock, and tempest’s roar, 

In spite of false lights on the shore, 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea: 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee ; 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
Our faith triumphant o’er our fears, 

Are all with thee—are all with thee! 


Analysis. —120-141. Name the continuous figure running through 
these lines. 

lib., thy keel. What figure? 

126. ribs of steel. What figure? 

127. Point out the figures in these lines. 

128. Name the figures in these lines. 


120 

125 

130 

135 

140 


I 



6. JOHN G. WHITTIER, 

1807 -. 

John Grbenleaf Whittier, sometimes called “the 
Quaker poet,” was bom at Haverhill, Massachusetts, on 
the 17th of December, 1807. His parents were members 
of the Society of Friends. Until his eighteenth year the 
young poet spent his time at home, working on the farm, 
writing occasional verses for the Haverhill Gazette , and 
assisting during the winter in making shoes. Two years 
were then spent in attending the village academy, after 
which he became the editor of a paper in Boston, and 
his life from that time to the present has been spent in 
literary pursuits. 

Whittier’s first volume, Legends of New England , was 
issued in 1831. It consisted of both poems and prose 
sketches. Since that time he has written many poems, 
and also many sketches and tales in prose, but his rep¬ 
utation as a writer rests almost wholly on his poetry. 
Since the year 1840, Whittier, who has never married, 
has lived at Amesbury, Massachusetts, where most of 
his work has been done. His writings have been col¬ 
lected from time to time and issued in book-form. 

His most popular poems are usually short. The fol¬ 
lowing may be mentioned as among the best: Maud 
Midler , The Barefoot Boy , Snowbound , Barbara Frietchie , 
A Tent on the Beach , My Playmate , Among the Hills , Mabel 
Martin , Centennial Hymn , and Skipper Ireson's Ride. In 
prose his principal work is Old Portraits and Modern 
Sketches. 


332 


JOHN G. WHITTIER. 


333 


CRITICISM BY GEORGE S. HILLARD. 

Whittier has written much in prose and verse, and 
his writings are characterized by earnestness of tone, 
high moral purpose, and energy of expression. His 
spirit is that of a sincere and fearless reformer, and 
his fervid appeals are the true utterances of a brave and 
loving heart. The themes of his poetry have been 
drawn, in a great measure, from the history, tradi¬ 
tions, manners, and scenery of New England; and he 
has found the elements of poetical interest among 
them without doing any violence to truth. He de¬ 
scribes natural scenery correctly and beautifully, and 
a vein of genuine tenderness runs through his nature. 


THE BAREFOOT BOY. 

Blessings on thee, little man, 

Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan; 

With thy turned-up pantaloons, 

And thy merry whistled tunes; 

With thy red lip, redder still 5 

Kissed by strawberries on the hill; 

With the sunshine on thy face 
Through thy torn brim’s jaunty grace I 
From my heart I give thee joy: 

I was once a barefoot boy. 10 

Prince thou art: the grown-up man 
Only is republican. 


Analysis. —1. Parse Blessings and man. 

2. Give the case of boy. cheek of tan. What figure ? 

2-8. Name the modifiers of boy. 

4. Dispose of the word merry. 

6. What figure in the line ? What does the line modify ? 
8. What does the line modify ? 

11. Prince thou art. What is the subject? 

12. Show the use of the word Only. 



334 


STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Let the million-dollared ride: 

Barefoot, trudging at his side, 

Thou hast more than he can buy- 
in the reach of ear and eye— 

Outward sunshine, inward joy. 

Blessings on thee, barefoot boy! 

Oh for boyhood’s painless play, 

Sleep that wakes in laughing day, 

Health that mocks the doctor’s rules, 

Knowledge never learned of schools,— 

Of the wild bee’s morning chase; 

Of the wild-flower’s time and place; 

Flight of fowl, and habitude 
Of the tenants of the wood; 

How the tortoise bears his shell ; 

How the woodchuck digs his cell; 

And the ground-mole sinks his well; 

How the robin feeds her young; 

How the oriole’s nest is hung; 

Where the whitest lilies blow; 

Where the freshest berries grow; 

Where the groundnut trails its vine; 

Where the wood-grape’s clusters shine; 

Of the black wasp’s cunning way, 

Mason of his walls of clay; 

Analysis.—13. What figure in the line ? Parse million-dollared . 

14. Give the grammatical construction of Barefoot, trudging , etc. 
What does the phrase modify ? 

15. Supply the ellipsis after than. 

15-17. Name the modifiers of hast. 

19. What relation does for express? 

20. Give the case of Sleep, laughing day. What figure ? 

22-39. Name each of the modifiers of Knowledge. 

21. Point out the figure in the line. 

24. Explain the line. 

25. Why habitude instead of habitation ? 

33. Give the meaning of blow as used here. 

37. Give the grammatical construction of Mason. 


15 

20 

25 

30 

35 



JOHN G. WHITTIER. 


335 


And the architectural plans 
Of gray hornet-artisans! 

For, eschewing books and tasks, 

Nature answers all he asks. 

Hand in hand with her he walks, 

Face to face with her he talks, 

Part and parcel of her joy: 

Blessings on the barefoot boy! 

Oh for boyhood’s time of June, 
Crowding years in one brief moon, 
When all things I heard or saw, 

Me, their master, waited for! 

I was rich in flowers and trees, 
Humming-birds and honey-bees; 

For my sport the squirrel played, 

Plied the snouted mole his spade; 

For my taste the blackberry-cone 
Purpled over hedge and stone; 

Laughed the brook for my delight 
Through the day and through the night, 
Whispering at the garden-wall, 

Talked with me from fall to fall; 


Analysis. —38, 39. What figure ? 

40. eschewing, etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

41. Point out the figure in the line. 

42. Hand in hand. Parse. 

43. Face to face. Parse. 

44. Dispose of Part and parcel. 

46. Give the grammatical construction of for. 

47. Crowding, etc. What does this limit ? Point out the figure in 
the line. 

49. Give the case of master. 

50, 51. Analyze the clause. 

53. Write the line in prose order. 

55. Point out the figure in the line. 

56. Laughed the brook. What figure ? 

58. What figure in the line ? What does the line modify ? 

59. What is the meaning of fall here ? 


40 

45 

50 

55 



336 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond; 
Mine the walnut slopes beyond; 

Mine, on bending orchard trees, 
Apples of Hesperides! 

Still, as my horizon grew, 

Larger grew my riches too: 

All the world I saw or knew 
Seemed a complex Chinese toy, 
Fashioned for a barefoot boy. 

Oh for festal dainties spread, 

Like my bowl of milk and bread 
(Pewter spoon and bowl of wood) 

On the doorstone gray and rude! 

O’er me, like a regal tent, 
Cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent, 
Purple-curtained, fringed with gold, 
Looped in many a wind-swung fold; 
While for music came the play 
Of the pied frogs’ orchestra, 

And to light the noisy choir 
Lit the fly his lamp of fire. 

I was monarch : pomp and joy 
Waited on the barefoot boy. 


Analysis. —60. Point out the alliteration. Parse pickerel pond. 
61. Dispose of Mine. 

64. Dispose of Still. Explain the line. 

65. Explain the force of too. 

66. Supply the ellipsis. 

67. Parse the word toy. 9 

70. Parse Like and bowl. 

72. On the doorstone , etc. What does the phrase modify? 

73. Dispose of like and tent. 

73-76. What figure? Name the modifiers of tent. 

77. Give the grammatical construction of While and for. 

78. What is the meaning of pied? 

79. to light, etc. What does the phrase modify? 

80. What figure in the line ? 

81. 82. Is this sentence complex or compound ? 


60 

65 

70 

75 

80 



JOHN G. WHITTIER. 


337 


Cheerily, then, my little man, 

Live and laugh, as boyhood can. 

Though the flinty slopes be hard, 

Stubble-speared the new-mown sward, 

Every morn shall lead thee through 
Fresh baptisms of the dew; 

Every evening, from thy feet 
Shall the cool wind kiss the heat: 

All too soon these feet must hide 
In the prison-cells of pride; 

Lose the freedom of the sod ; 

Like a colt’s, for work be shod; 

• Made to tread the mills of toil, 

Up and down in ceaseless moil, 

Happy if their track be found 
Never on forbidden ground; 

Happy if they sink not in 
Quick and treacherous sands of sin. 

Ah that thou couldst know thy joy 
Ere it passes, barefoot boy! 

Analysis. — 83. What part of speech is then ? Give the case of 
man. 

84. Parse as. Complete the verb. 

85. What figure in the line? 

86. Supply the verb. 

87. Point out the figures. 

85-88. Analyze the sentence. 

89, 90. Point out the figure. 

91. What part of speech is All? 

92. Point out the figure in the line. 

93. Lose. Give the mode and the tense. 

94. be shod. In what mode and tense ? Parse like. 

95. Parse Made. 

96. Dispose of Up and down. What is the meaning of moil ? 

97. What is the antecedent of their? 

99. Name the antecedent of they. 

100. Point out an example of poetic license. 

101. that thou , etc. What kind of clause? What is the subject? 

22 


85 

90 

95 

100 



7. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, 

1809 -. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, a witty and brilliant writer 
of both prose and poetry, was born at Cambridge, Massa¬ 
chusetts, on the 29th of August, 1809. He was educated 
partly at Phillips Academy, Exeter, and then graduated 
at Harvard in 1829. After leaving Harvard he spent a 
year in the study of law, when he abandoned that pro¬ 
fession and chose the profession of medicine instead. 
During the year 1830, while studying law, he contrib¬ 
uted a number of witty poems to The Collegian , a period¬ 
ical published by the undergraduates of Harvard Uni¬ 
versity. 

In 1833, Holmes visited Europe, residing chiefly in 
Paris, where he pursued his medical studies. On his 
return to America, in 1836, he took his medical degree 
at Harvard University, and two years later became Pro¬ 
fessor of Anatomy and Physiology at Dartmouth Col¬ 
lege. He held this position until the time of his mar¬ 
riage, in 1840, when he removed to Boston, and there 
won much success as a practicing physician. In 1847 
he was made Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in 
Harvard, a post which he has filled with honor ever 
since. 

Dr. Holmes has won distinction not only as a pro¬ 
fessional man, but also as a writer on subjects related to 
his profession. He is, however, best known to the pub¬ 
lic by his purely literary productions. His lyrics, such 
as Old Ironsides , Union and Liberty , Welcome to the Nations, 

338 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 


339 


etc., are not only spirited, but also among the most 
beautiful in our language; and his humorous poems, 
including the One-Hoss Shay, Lending an Old Punch-Bowl, 
My Aunt, The Boys , and many others, are characterized 
by a vivacious and sparkling wit which makes their 
drollery irresistible. 

Dr. Holmes’s prose works are written in a vein which 
proves him to be original not only in thought, but also 
in expression, and the succession of brilliant pictures 
with which he entertains the reader fills one with de¬ 
light. His principal prose works are The Autocrat of the 
Breakfast-Table, originally contributed to the Atlantic 
Monthly ; The Professor at the- Breakfast- Table; Elsie Venner, 
a novel; The Guardian Angel , a novel; and The Poet at 
the Breakfast-Table, —all of which have been hailed with 
delight and enthusiasm. 


CRITICISM BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. 

Dr. Holmes has been likened to Thomas Hood; but 
there is little in common between them, save the power 
of combining fancy and sentiment with grotesque droll¬ 
ery and humor. Hood, under all his whims and odd¬ 
ities, conceals the vehement intensity of a reformer. 
The iron of the world’s wrongs has entered into his 
soul. There is an undertone of sorrow in his lyrics. 
His sarcasm, directed against oppression and bigotry, at 
times betrays the earnestness of one whose own withers 
have been wrung. Holmes writes simply for the amuse¬ 
ment of himself and his readers. He deals only with 
the vanities, the foibles, and the minor faults of man¬ 
kind, good-naturedly and almost sympathizingly sug¬ 
gesting excuses for folly, which he tosses about on the 
horns of his ridicule. Long may he live to make broader 
the face of our care-ridden generation, and to realize for 


340 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

himself the truth of the wise man’s declaration, that “ A 
merry heart is a continual feast ”! 


THE CHAMBEEED NAUTILUS. 

Note. —Dr. Holmes has said of this poem, “If you will remember 
me by the ‘Chambered Nautilus/ your memory will be a monument 
I shall think more of than any bronze or marble” 

I. 

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, 

Sails the unshadowed main,— 

The venturous bark that flings 
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings 
In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings, 5 

And coral reefs lie bare, 

. Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. 

ii. 

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl,— 

Wrecked is the ship of pearl I 

And every chambered cell, 10 

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, 

As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, 


Analysis.—1. Point out the figure in the line, poets feign. 
What kind of clause ? 

2. main. Parse this word. 

3. Give the case of bark. 

4. Why sweet summer ? What figure ? 

5. siren sings. Explain the meaning of this. 

6. Supply the ellipsis. What kind of adjective is bare f 

7. What is the meaning of sea-maids ? 

8. What figure in the line ? Parse more. 

9. Why is this sentence reversed ? 

10. Point out the figure in the line. 

11. Give the meaning of ivas wont. What figure in the line ? 

12. What is meant by the frail tenant ? 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 341 

Before thee lies revealed,— 

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed! 

hi. 

Year after year beheld the silent toil 
That spread his lustrous coil; 

Still, as the spiral grew, 

He left the past year’s dwelling for the new, 

Stole with soft step its shining archway through, 

Built up its idle door, 

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. 

IV. 

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, 

Child of the wandering sea, 

Cast from her lap forlorn ! 

. From thy dead lips a clearer note is borne 
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn! 

While on mine ear it rings, 

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: 

v. 

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll 1 

Analysis. —14. irised ceiling. What is the meaning? What is 
the meaning of sunless crypt f 
15. Dispose of Year after year. 

17. Dispose of the word Still. Give a synonym of grew. 

19, 20. Name the subject of Stole and Built. What is the meaning 
of idle here ? 

21. Explain the use of more as here used. 

22. Parse Thanks. 

23. In what case is Child f 

24. Point out the figure in the line. Parse the word Cast. 

26. Who was Triton t What is the effect of the accent-mark over 
£ in wi'eathM. 

27. What does the line modify? 

28. caves of thought. What figure ? 

29. How is thee governed ? 

30. What does the line modify ? 


15 

20 

25 

30 



342 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Leave thy low-vaulted past! 

Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
Till thou at length art free, 

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea! 


Analysis. —31. Point out the figure in the line. 

32. What figure in the line ? Parse nobler. 

33. In what mode is shut ? Complete the comparison with more. 

34. Of what is this line a modifier ? 

34, 35. Mention the adjuncts of thou. 


THE LAST LEAF. 

I SAW him once before 
As he passed by the door; 

And again 

The pavement-stones resound 
As he totters o’er the ground 
With his cane. 

They say, that in his prime, 

Ere the pruning-knife of Time 
Cut him down, 

Not a,better man was found 
By the crier on his round 
Through the town. 

But now he walks the streets, 

And he looks at all he meets, 

Sad and wan; 

And he shakes his feeble head, 
That it seems as if he said, 

“ They are gone!” 

The mossy marbles rest 
On the lips that he has prest 
In their bloom; 

And the names he loved to hear 
Have been carved for many a year 
On the tomb. 




OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES . 


343 


My grandmamma has said— 
Poor old lady! she is dead 
Long ago— 

That he had a Roman nose, 
And his cheek was like a rose 
In the snow. 

But now his nose is thin, 

And it rests upon his chin 
Like a staff; 

And a crook is in his back, 
And a melancholy crack 
In his laugh. 

I know it is a sin 
For me to sit and grin 
At him here; 

But the old three-cornered hat, 
And the breeches, and all that, 
Are so queer! 

And if I should live to be 
The last leaf upon the tree 
In the spring, 9 

Let them smile, as I do now, 
At the old forsaken bough 
Where I cling. 


25 

30 

35 

40 

45 


8. GEORGE BANCROFT, 

1800-. 

George Bancroft, an eminent historian, was born at 
Worcester, Massachusetts, October 3, 1800. His father, 
who was a Congregational clergyman, gave close atten¬ 
tion to his son’s education, placing him in the academy 
at Exeter, where he was prepared for college. So bril¬ 
liant was the young historian that he graduated with 
the second honors of his class at Harvard in 1817, 
though he was not yet seventeen years of age. In the 
following year he went to Europe, and continued his 
studies at the universities of Gottingen and Berlin; 
and, having made the tour of Germany, Switzerland, 
Italy, and England, he returned to America in 1822, 
when he was immediately made tutor of Greek at Har¬ 
vard. He continued in this position for a year, and 
then, with his friend Dr. J. G. Cogswell, established the 
Bound Hill School at Northampton, Massachusetts. The 
duties of his position as a teacher, however, were not 
congenial to him, and, though the school met with a 
fair degree of success, Bancroft soon abandoned the 
work and turned his attention to politics, becoming an 
active member of the Democratic party. 

His first political reward was his appointment by 
President Van Buren as collector of the port of Boston 
in 1838, which position he held until 1841. In 1845, 
President Polk placed him in his cabinet as Secretary 
of the Navy, the duties of which position he discharged 
with eminent ability. In the following year he was sent 
as minister to England, where he remained until 1849, 

344 


GEORGE BANCROFT. 


345 


when he returned to the United States. He then took 
up his residence in the city of New York, where he de¬ 
voted himself to the writing of his great work, The His¬ 
tory of the United States, the first volume of which had 
been issued in 1834. Bancroft was, during the admin¬ 
istration of President Grant, minister-plenipotentiary to 
Germany. 

This author began his literary career in 1823 by the 
publication of a volume of poems, which was followed 
the next year by a translation of Heeren’s Reflections on 
the Politics of Ancient Greece. But his principal work is 
his History of the United States , in ten volumes—a book 
which is recognized as the standard record of the origin 
and growth of our country. 


CRITICISM BY DUYCKINCIC 

The specialty of Mr. Bancroft’s History is its prompt 
recognition and philosophical development of the ele¬ 
ments of liberty existing in the country from the settle¬ 
ment of the first colonists to the matured era of inde¬ 
pendence. He traces this spirit in the natural conditions 
of the land, in men, and in events. History, in his view, 
is no accident or chance concurrence of incidents, but 
an organic growth, which the actors control, and to which 
they are subservient. The nation became free, he main¬ 
tains, from the necessit}^ of the human constitution, and 
because it deliberately willed to be free.The his¬ 

tory of America is the history of liberty. The author 
never relaxes his grasp of this central law. Hence the 
manly vigor and epic grandeur of his story. 

With the leading idea Mr. Bancroft associates the 
most minute attention to details. His page is crowded 
with facts brought forward with the air of realities of 
the time. He does not disdain to cite in his text the 



346 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


very words of the old actors as they were uttered in the 
ballad, the sermon, the speech, or the newspaper of the 
day. This gives verisimilitude to his story. It is a his¬ 
tory of the people as well as of the state. 

THE HUDSON RIVER. 

Note. —The following vivid description contrasts the picture of 
the Hudson River when first discovered by Henry Hudson in 1609 
with the present condition of things along the banks of that beauti¬ 
ful stream. 

Sombre forests shed a melancholy grandeur over the 
useless magnificence of Nature, and hid, in their deep 
shades, the rich soil which the sun had never warmed. 
No axe had leveled the giant progeny of the.crowded 
groves, in which the fantastic forms of withered limbs, 5 
that had been blasted and riven by lightning, contrasted 
strangely with the verdant freshness of a younger growth 
of branches. 

The wanton grapevine, seeming by its own power to 
have sprung from the earth, and to have fastened its 10 
leafy coils on the top of the tallest forest tree, swung in 
the air with every breeze like the loosened shrouds of a 
ship. Trees might everywhere be seen breaking from 
their root in the marshy soil and threatening to fall 
with the first rude gust; while the ground was strewn 15 
with the ruins of former forests, over which a profusion 

Analysis.—1. Point out the figure in this line. 

2. Why useless magnificence? 

4. What is the meaning of giant progeny ? What figure ? 

6. that had been blasted. What does the clause modify ? 

9. What figure in the line ? What are the modifiers of seeming t 
by its own power. What does the phrase modify ? 

11-13. What figure in these lines ? Parse like and ship. 

14. in the marshy soil. What does the phrase modify ? 

15. What is the office of while ? 



GEORGE BANCROFT. 


347 


of wild flowers wasted their freshness in mockery of the 
gloom. 

Reptiles sported in the stagnant pools or crawled un¬ 
harmed over piles of mouldering trees. The spotted 
deer crouched among the thickets, but not to hide, for 
there was no pursuer; and there were none but wild 
animals to crop the uncut herbage of the productive 
prairies. Silence reigned—broken, it may have been, 
by the flight of land-birds or the flapping of water- 
fowl, and rendered more dismal by the howl of beasts 
of prey. 

The streams, not yet limited to a channel, spread over 
sandbars tufted with copses of willow, or waded through 
wastes of reeds, or slowly but surely undermined the 
groups of sycamores that grew by their side. The 
smaller brooks spread out their sedgy swamps, that 
were overhung by clouds of mosquitoes; masses of 
decaying vegetation fed the exhalations with the seeds 
of pestilence, and made the balmy air of the summer’s 
evening as deadly as it seemed grateful. Vegetable life 
and death were mingled hideousty together. The hor¬ 
rors of corruption frowned on the fruitless fertility of 
uncultivated Nature. 

And man, the occupant of the soil, was wild as the 
savage scene, in harmony with the rude Nature by 

Analysis. —22. Parse there and hut . What are the modifiers of 
none ? 

24-27. What are the modifiers of silence f 

25. Parse flapping. 

28. Name the modifiers of limited. 

29. Name the modifiers of sand-bars. 

32. Dispose of out. 

33. Point out the figure in this line. 

36. Parse deadly and grateful. 

40, 41. Name the modifiers of man. Supply the ellipsis. 

41. Give the case of scene. What figure in this line? 


20 

25 

30 

35 

40 



348 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

which he was surrounded; a vagrant over the continent, 
in constant warfare with his fellow-man ; the bark of the 
birch his canoe; strings of shells his ornaments, his 
record, and his coin; the roots of the forest among his 
resources for food; his knowledge in architecture sur¬ 
passed, both in strength and durability, by the skill of 
the beaver; bended saplings the beams of his house; 
the branches and rind of trees its roof; drifts of forest- 
leaves his couch; mats of bulrushes his protection 
against the winter’s cold; his religion the adoration of 
Nature; his morals the promptings of undisciplined 
instinct; disputing with the wolves and bears the lord- 
ship of the soil, and dividing with the squirrel the wild 
fruits with which the universal woodlands abounded. 

How changed is the scene from that on which Hud¬ 
son gazed! The earth glows with the colors of civiliza¬ 
tion ; the banks of the streams are enameled with rich¬ 
est grasses; woodlands and cultivated fields are harmo¬ 
niously blended; the birds of spring find th§ir delight 
in orchards and trim gardens, variegated with choicest 
plants from every temperate zone; while the brilliant 
flowers of the tropics bloom from the windows of the 
green-house and the saloon. 

The yeoman, living like a good neighbor near the 
fields he cultivates, glories in the fruitfulness of the val- 

Analysis.— 42, 43. Supply the. ellipsis, in constant warfare, etc. 
What does the phrase modify ? 

43. the bark, etc. What is the subject of the clause? 

43-55. Supply the ellipses in these clauses. 

56. What figure in the line? 

57. Give the meaning of glows. Specify the colors of civilization. 

58. enameled. How enameled ? 

61. trim gardens. Give a synonym for trim. 

64. What is the meaning of saloon as here used ? 

65. Point out the figure in the line. 

66. What figure in the line ? 


45 

50 

55 

60 

65 



GEORGE BANCROFT. 


349 


leys, and counts, with honest exultation, the flocks and 
herds that browse in safety on the hills. The thorn has 
given way to the rosebush; the cultivated vine clam¬ 
bers over rocks where the brood of serpents used to 
nestle; while Industry smiles at the changes she has 
wrought, and inhales the bland air which now has 
health on its wings. 

And man is still in harmony with Nature, which he 
has subdued, cultivated, and adorned. For him the 
rivers that flow to remotest climes mingle their waters; 
for him the lakes gain new outlets to the ocean; for him 
the arch spans the flood and science spreads iron path¬ 
ways to the recent wilderness; for him the hills yield 
up the shining marble and the enduring granite; for 
him the forests of the interior come down in immense 
rafts; for him the marts of the city gather the produce 
of every clime, and libraries collect the works of genius 
of every language and every age. 

The passions of society are chastened into purity; 
manners are made benevolent by civilization; and the 
virtue of the country is the guardian of its peace. Sci¬ 
ence investigates the powers of every plant and mineral 
to find medicines for disease; schools of surgery rival 
the establishments of the Old World. 

An active daily press, vigilant from party interests, 


Analysis. —68. Give a synonym for browse. 

68, 69. The thorn has given way to the rosebush. Express the thought 
in different words. 

71. Point out the figure in the line. 

72. bland air. What is the meaning ? 

74-84. What extended figure in these lines? 

86, 87. Point out the figure in these lines. 

87, 88. Science investigates, etc. What figure ? 

91. Name the modifiers of press. 

91, 92. Point out the figure. 


70 

75 

80 

85 

90 



350 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

free even to dissoluteness, watches the progress of soci¬ 
ety and communicates every fact that can interest hu¬ 
manity; the genius of letters begins to unfold his 
powers in the warm sunshine of public favor. And, 95 
while idle curiosity may take its walk in shady avenues 
by the ocean-side, commerce pushes its wharves into the 
sea, blocks up the wide rivers with its fleets, and, send¬ 
ing its ships, the pride of naval architecture, to every 
clime, defies every wind, outrides every tempest, and 100 
invades every zone. 


Analysis. —94. genius of letters. What is the meaning? 
95-101. Point out the figures in these lines. 

98, 99. sending its ships. What does the phrase modify ? 

99. With what is pride in apposition ? 



9. WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT, 

? 1796 - 1859 . 

William Hickling Prescott, the great historian, was 
born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the 4th of May, 1796. 
His father, William Prescott, was a distinguished jurist, 
and his grandfather was Colonel William Prescott, who 
commanded the American troops at the battle of Bunker 
Hill. The father having removed with his family to 
Boston, the son received his education in the schools of 
that city and at Harvard University, where he graduated 
with honor in 1814. 

It was young Prescott’s intention to follow his father’s 
profession, but near the close of his school-life one of 
his fellow-collegians in throwing a bread-crust struck 
one of Prescott’s eyes, which was at once rendered al¬ 
most wholly sightless, and the sight of the other became 
impaired through sympathy. He now spent two years 
in Europe, partly in search of medical advice, visiting 
England, France, and Italy, but his painful infirmity 
was found to be beyond relief. 

On his return to America he determined to become 
an historian, and for ten years he devoted himself 
assiduously to the study of the literature of France, 
Italy, and Spain, much of the time being compelled to 
employ a reader, to whom he dictated copious notes 
which he afterward employed in his composition. Pres¬ 
cott chose for his first subject The Reign of Ferdinand 
and Isabella. This history appeared in three volumes 
in 1837, and so popular was it that it was almost imme- 

361 


352 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


diately translated and reprinted in France, Germany, 
and Spain. 

In 1843 his reputation was still further extended by 
the publication of his History of the Conquest of Mexico , 
which was followed in 1847 by the History of the Con¬ 
quest of Peru. 

Prescott in 1850 made a second visit to England, 
where he was most cordially received, the University of 
Oxford conferring on him the honorary degree of LL.D. 
His travels on this tour extended also to the Continent. 

In 1855, Prescott published the first two volumes of 
his last and probably his greatest book, The History of 
Philip the Second. A third volume was issued in 1858, 
but the great author did not live to complete the work. 
On the 28th of January, 1859, while sitting alone in his 
library, he was smitten with paralysis, from the effects 
of which he died in a few hours. 

In addition to his histories, Prescott published also a 
volume of Biographical and Critical Miscellanies , includ¬ 
ing an excellent essay on Spanish literature. 

No historian has been more eagerly read than Pres¬ 
cott—a fact due largely to the excellence of his style, in 
which he has the happy faculty of investing the driest 
details of history with the highest charms of fiction. 


CRITICISM (“ CHAMBERS’S CYCLOPAEDIA OF ENG¬ 
LISH LITERATURE ”). 

As an historian Prescott may rank with Robertson as 
a master of the art of narrative, while he excels him in 
the variety and extent of his illustrative researches. 
He was happy in the choice of his subjects. The very 
names of Castile and Arragon, Mexico and Peru, possess 
a romantic charm, and the characters and scenes he de¬ 
picts have the interest and splendor of the most gor- 


WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT. 


353 


geous fiction. To some extent the American historian 
fell into the error of Robertson in palliating the enor¬ 
mous cruelties that marked the career of the Spanish 
conquerors; but he is more careful in citing his author¬ 
ities, in order, as he says, “ to put the reader in a posi¬ 
tion for judging for himself, and thus revising, and, if 
need be, for reversing, the judgments of the historian.” 

QUEEN ISABELLA. 

Note. —This extract is taken from the first published of Pres¬ 
cott’s works, The Rei§n of Ferdinand and Isabella. 

Her person was of the middle height, and well pro¬ 
portioned. She had a clear, fresh complexion, with 
light-blue eyes and auburn hair—a style of beauty ex¬ 
ceedingly rare in Spain. Her features were regular, 
and universally allowed to be uncommonly handsome. 5 
The illusion which attaches to rank, more especially 
when united with engaging manners, might lead us to 
suspect some exaggeration in the encomiums so liberally 
lavished on her; but they would seem to be in a great 
measure justified by the portraits that remain of her, 10 
which combine a faultless symmetry of features with 
singular sweetness and intelligence of expression. 

Her manners were most gracious and pleasing. They 
were marked by natural dignity and modest reserve, 


Analysis. —1. Substitute another word for person. 

1, 2. of the middle height and well proportioned. Should not these 
two expressions have the same construction ? 

3. What kind of adjective is light-blue ? With what is the word 
style in apposition ? 

5. Substitute a word for universally. Is allowed the best word to 
express the meaning here ? Give synonyms for the word handsome. 

6. which attaches to rank. Reconstruct this expression. 

10. the portraits that remain of her. Criticise. 

11. which combine , etc. Is the clause restrictive or non-restrictive ? 

23 



354 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


tempered by an affability which flowed from the kind¬ 
ness of her disposition. She was the -last person to be 
approached with undue familiarity, yet the respect 
which she imposed was mingled with the strongest 
feelings of devotion and love. She showed great tact 
in accommodating herself to the peculiar situation and 
character of those around her. 

She appeared in arms at the head of her troops, and 
shrank from none of the hardships of war. During the 
reforms introduced into the religious houses she visited 
the nunneries in person, taking her needlework with 
her and passing the day in the society of the inmates. 
When traveling in Galicia she attired herself in the 
costume of the country, borrowing for that purpose the 
jewels and other ornaments of the ladies there, and 
returning them with liberal additions. By this con¬ 
descending and captivating deportment, as well as by 
her higher qualities, she gained an ascendency over her 
turbulent subjects which no king of Spain could ever 
boast. 

She spoke the Castilian with much elegance and cor¬ 
rectness. She had an easy fluency of discourse, which, 
though generally of a serious complexion, was occa¬ 
sionally seasoned with agreeable sallies, some of which 
have passed into proverbs. She was temperate even to 
abstemiousness in her diet, seldom or never tasting wine, 

Analysis. —15. Parse the word tempered, which flowed, etc. Is 
this restrictive or not? 

17, 18. respect which she imposed. Improve this expression. 

19. Give the meaning of tact. 

31. Parse as well as. 

32. What is the meaning of higher as here used ? 

34. boast. Is this transitive or intransitive ? 

36. What is the antecedent of which f 

37. Substitute a word for complexion. 

39, 40. She .... diet. Write this clause in another form. 


15 

20 

25 

30 

35 

40 



WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT. 


355 


and so frugal in her table that the daily expenses for 
herself and family did not exceed the moderate sum of 
forty ducats. She was . equally simple and economical 
in her apparel. On all public occasions, indeed, she dis¬ 
played a royal magnificence, but she had no relish for 
it in private, and she freely gave away her clothes and 
jewels as presents to her friends. 

Naturally of a sedate though cheerful temper, she had 
little taste for the frivolous amusements which make up 
so much of a court-life; and if she encouraged the pres¬ 
ence of minstrels and musicians in her palace, it was to 
wean her young nobility from the coarser and less intel¬ 
lectual pleasures to which they were addicted. Among 
her moral qualities the most conspicuous, perhaps, was 
her magnanimity. She betrayed nothing little or selfish 
in thought or action. Her schemes were vast, and exe¬ 
cuted in the same noble spirit in which they were con¬ 
ceived. 

She never employed doubtful agents or sinister meas¬ 
ures, but the most direct and open policy. She scorned 
to avail herself of advantages offered by the perfidy of 
others. Where she had once given her confidence, she 
gave her hearty and steady support, and she was scru¬ 
pulous to redeem any pledge she had made to those who 
ventured in her cause, however unpopular. She sus¬ 
tained Ximenes in all his obnoxious but salutary re¬ 
forms. She seconded Columbus in the prosecution of 
his arduous enterprise, and shielded him from the 
calumnies of his enemies. She did the same good 

Analysis.—41 . frugal in her table* What figure ? 

41, 42. for herself and family. Is the phrase correct? 

48. Naturally, etc. Supply the ellipsis. 

53, 54. Is this sentence periodic or loose ? 

56, 57. Parse the word executed. 

67. Substitute a word for seconded. 


45 

50 

55 

60 

65 



356 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


service to her favorite, Gonsalvo de Cordova, and the 70 
day of her death was felt—and, as it proved, truly felt 
—by both as the last of their good-fortune. Artifice 
and duplicity were so abhorrent to her character, and 
so averse from her domestic policy, that when they 
appear in the foreign relations of Spain, it is certainly 75 
not imputable to her. She was incapable of harboring 
any petty distrust or latent malice; and although stern 
in the execution and exaction of public justice, she made 
the most generous allowance, and even sometimes ad¬ 
vances, to those who had personally injured her. 80 
But the principle which gave a peculiar coloring to 
every feature of Isabella’s mind was piety. It shone 
forth from the very depths of her soul with a heavenly 
radiance which illuminated her whole character. For¬ 
tunately, her earliest years had been passed in the rug- 85 
ged school of adversity, under the eye of a mother who 
implanted in her serious mind such strong principles of 
religion as nothing in after life had power to shake. At 
an early age, in the flower of youth and beauty, she was 
introduced to her brother’s court, but its blandishments, 90 
so dazzling to a young imagination, had no power over 
hers, for she was surrounded by a moral atmosphere of 
purity, driving far off each thing of sin and guilt. Such 
was the decorum of her manners that though encom¬ 
passed by false friends and open enemies, not the slight- 95 
est reproach was breathed on her fair name in this cor¬ 
rupt and calumnious court. 


Analysis.—74. averse from. Substitute a word for averse. 

81. a'peculiar coloring. What figure? 

82. 83. shone forth. Dispose of forth. What figure in the line ? 

83. depths of her soul. What figure ? 

85, 86. rugged school of adversity. Point out the figure. 

89. in the flower of youth and beauty. What figure? 

90. her brother’s court. What figure ? 



10. JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, 

1814 - 1877 . 

John Lothrop Motley, one of America’s most emi¬ 
nent historians, was born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, 
April 15, 1814. He graduated from Harvard College in 
1831, when he was but seventeen years of age. After 
graduation he spent three years in Europe preparing 
for his great work as an author, and then returning to 
America, was admitted to the bar in 1836. His first 
published books were Morton's Hope and Merry Mount , 
issued about the year 1839, both works of some merit, 
but so greatly inferior to his histories that they are now 
comparatively forgotten. 

Motley’s first great work was the Rise of the Dutch Re¬ 
public. It was published in 1856, in three volumes, its 
author having devoted fifteen years of study and re¬ 
search in the preparation of the work. The success 
of this histor}' was instantaneous in both England and 
America. It was translated and published also in Dutch, 
German, and French. The author was comparatively 
young and unknown, but it at once established his 
fame as an historical writer of the highest order. 

In 1865 he published his History of the United Nether¬ 
lands, from the Death of William the Silent to the Synod of 
Dort , and in 1874 he added The Life and Death of Barne- 
veld , Advocate of Holland. Both of these, like his first 
published history, were written in that brilliant and 
vigorous style which places him in the foremost rank 
not only as an historian, but also as a master of pure, 
strong, eloquent English. 


357 


358 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Mr. Motley filled a number of governmental positions 
abroad, chief among them that of minister-pleniopoten- 
tiary to Austria from 1861 to 1867, and to England from 
1869 to 1870, when, through a change of administration, 
he was recalled. He was honored with the degree D. C. L. 
by Oxford, and with the degree LL.D. by the univer¬ 
sities of both Cambridge and New York. After his with¬ 
drawal from political life, in 1870, he lived as a private 
citizen to the time of his death, May 29, 1877. 

CRITICISM. 

Motley was one of the most industrious of authors. 
The mass of papers which he studied and examined 
critically at Brussels, Venice, and Paris for the purpose 
of preparing himself to write The History of the United 
Netherlands was enormous, and his great industry mani¬ 
fests itself in the excellence with which he did his work. 
No other writer has brought together such a variety of 
personages and such a mass of details into one collective 
whole, and yet presented all these substantial facts of 
history with the air of a romance. We follow the fates 
and fortunes of the various characters with an interest 
almost equal to that aroused by the best works of fiction. 
His style is vivid and sparkling, but sometimes his anal¬ 
ysis of character is so exhaustive as to lead almost to 
repetition. In spite of this fault, however, his produc¬ 
tions are among the greatest historical works ever written. 

WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 

The history of the rise <5f the Netherland Republic 
has been at the same time the biography of William 
the Silent. This, while it gives unity to the narrative, 
renders an elaborate description of his character super- 

Analysis.—3, 4. What is the difference between narrative and de¬ 
scription t Dispose of superfluous. 



JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. 


359 


fluous. That life was a noble Christian epic, inspired 5 
with one great purpose from its commencement to its 
close—the stream flowing ever from one fountain with 
expanding fullness, but retaining all its original purity. 

In person, Orange was above the middle height, per¬ 
fectly well made and sinewy, but rather spare than 10 
stout. His eyes, hair, beard, and complexion were 
brown. His head was small, symmetrically shaped, 
combining the alertness' and compactness characteristic 
of the soldier with the capacious brow furrowed prema¬ 
turely with the horizontal lines of thought denoting the 15 
statesman and the sage. His physical appearance was, 
therefore, in harmony with his organization, which was 
of antique model. Of his moral qualities, the most 
prominent was his piety. He was, more than anything 
else, a religious man. From his trust in God he ever 20 
derived support and consolation in the darkest hours. 
Implicitly relying upon Almighty Wisdom and Good¬ 
ness, he looked danger in the face with a constant smile, 
and endured' incessant labors and trials with a serenity 
which seemed more than human. While, however, his 25 
soul was full of piety, it was tolerant of error. Sincere¬ 
ly and deliberately himself a convert to the Reformed 
Church, he was ready to extend freedom of worship to 
Catholics on one hand and to Anabaptists on the other; 

Analysis. —6. Point out the figure in the line. 

9. above the middle height. What kind of phrase ? 

14. furrowed. What figure ? 

15. denoting , etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

17. in harmony , etc. What kind of phrase ? 

19. What are the modifiers of prominent t 

20. Parse else. 

20, 21. Rewrite the sentence. 

22. Point out the figure in the line. 

25. Dispose of more than. 

26, 27. Sincerely and deliberately. What do these words modify ? 



360 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

for no man ever felt more keenly than he that the re- 30 
former who becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious. 
His firmness was allied to his piety. His constancy in 
bearing the whole weight of a struggle as unequal as 
men have ever undertaken was the theme of admira¬ 
tion even to his enemies. The rock in the ocean, “ tran- 35 
quil amid raging billows,” was the favorite emblem by 
which his friends expressed their sense of his firmness. 
From the time when, as a hostage in France, he first 
discovered the plan of Philip to plant the Inquisition 
in the Netherlands, up to the last moment of his life, 40 
he never faltered in his determination to resist that in¬ 
iquitous scheme. This resistance was the labor of his 
life. To exclude the Inquisition, to maintain the an¬ 
cient liberties of his country, was the task which he 
appointed to himself when a youth of three-and-twenty. 45 

Never speaking a word concerning a heavenly mission, 
never deluding himself or others with the usual phrase¬ 
ology of enthusiasts, he accomplished the task through 
danger, amid toils, and with sacrifices such as few men 
have ever been able to make on their country’s altar; 50 
for the disinterested benevolence of the man was as 
prominent as his fortitude. 

A prince of high rank and with royal revenues, he 
stripped himself of station, wealth, almost, at times, of 
the common necessaries of life, and became, in his coun- 55 
try’s cause, nearly a beggar .as well as an outlaw. Nor 


Analysis.— 30. What is the object of felt ? 

35. What is the force of even ? 

38. Dispose of when. 

39. Give a synonym for plant. What was the Inquisition ? 
44. Name the subject of was. 

46-52. Analyze this paragraph. 

53. What are the modifiers of he ? 

56. What does nearly modify ? What is the force of Nor ? 



JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. 


361 


was he forced into his career by an accidental impulse 
from which there was no recovery. Retreat was ever 
open to him. Not only pardon, but advancement, was 
urged upon him again and again. Officially and pri¬ 
vately, directly and circuitously, his confiscated estates, 
together with indefinite and boundless favors in addi¬ 
tion, were offered to him on every great occasion. On 
the arrival of Don John, at the Breda negotiations, at 
the Cologne conferences, we have seen how calmly these 
offers were waived aside, as if their rejection was so sim¬ 
ple that it hardly required many words for its significa¬ 
tion ; yet he had mortgaged his estates so deeply that 
his heirs hesitated at accepting their inheritance, for 
fear it should involve them in debt. Ten years after 
his death the account between his executors and his 
brother John amounted to one million four hundred 
thousand florins due to the count, secured by various 
pledges of real and personal property; and it was final¬ 
ly settled upon this basis. He was, besides, largely in¬ 
debted to every one of his powerful relatives; so that 
the payment of the encumbrances upon his estate very 
nearly justified the fears of his children. While on the 
one hand, therefore, he poured out these enormous sums 
like water, and firmly refused a hearing to the tempting 
offers of the royal government, upon the other hand he 

Analysis.—60. Dispose of again and again. 

66. Name the modifiers of were waived. Parse as if. 

68, 69. that his heirs , etc. What does the clause modify ? 

70. should involve. Is should correctly used here? 

72. Parse amounted to. Name the complex adjective in the 
line. 

73. How much is a florin t 

75. indebted. Parse. 

76. so that. Parse. 

79. Dispose of poured out. 

80. like water. What figure ? 


60 

65 

70 

75 

: 80 



362 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


proved the disinterested nature of his services by de¬ 
clining, year after year, the sovereignty over the prov¬ 
inces, and by only accepting in the last days of his life, 
when refusal had become almost impossible, the limited 
constitutional supremacy over that portion of them which 
now makes the realm of his descendants. He lived and 
died, not for himself, but for his country. “ God pity 
this poor people!” were his dying words. 

His intellectual faculties were various, and of the high¬ 
est order. He had the exact, practical, and combining 
qualities which make the great commander; and his 
friends claimed that in military genius he was second 
to no captain in Europe. This was, no doubt, an exag¬ 
geration of partial attachment; but it is certain that 
the emperor Charles had an exalted opinion of his 
capacity for the field. His fortification of Philippeville 
and Charlemont in the face of the enemy; his passage 
of the Meuse in Alva’s sight; his unfortunate but well- 
ordered campaign against that general; his sublime 
plan of relief, projected and successfully directed at last 
from his sick bed, for the besieged city of Leyden,—will 
always remain monuments of his practical military skill. 

The supremacy of his political genius was entirely 
beyond question. He was the first statesman of the 
age. The quickness of his perception was only equaled 


Analysis.—83. Dispose of year after year. 

84. Criticise the position of only. 

88, 89.,What is the subject of the clause? Give the mode of pity. 
90, 91. of the highest order. What kind of phrase ? 

95, 96. it is certain , etc. What is in apposition with it ? 

97. Give a synonym for capacity as here used. 

97-103. Analyze the sentence. 

104. What does entirely modify ? 

105. beyond question. What kind of phrase ? 

106. Criticise the position of only. 


85 

90 

95 

100 

105 



JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. 363 

by the caution which enabled him to mature the results 
of his observations. His knowledge of human nature 
was profound. He governed the passions and senti¬ 
ments of a great nation as if they had been but the 
keys and chords of one vast instrument; and his hand 
rarely failed to evoke harmony even out of the wildest 
storms. The turbulent city of Ghent, which could obey 
no other master, which even the haughty emperor could 
only crush without controlling, was ever responsive to 
the master-hand of Orange. His presence scared away 
Imbize and his bat-like crew, confounded the schemes 
of John Casimir, frustrated the wiles of Prince Chimay; 
and, while he lived, Ghent was what it ought always to 
have remained—the bulwark, as it had been the cradle, 
of popular liberty. After his death it became its tomb. 
Ghent, saved thrice by the policy, the eloquence, the 
self-sacrifices of Orange, fell, within three months of his 
murder, into the hands of Parma. The loss of this 
most important city, followed in the next year by the 
downfall of Antwerp, sealed the fate of the Southern 
Netherlands. Had the prince lived, how different might 
have been the country’s fate! If seven provinces could 
dilate in so brief a space into the powerful common¬ 
wealth which the republic soon became, what might not 
have been achieved by the united seventeen ?—a confed¬ 
eracy which would have united the adamantine vigor of 


Analysis. —110. Parse but. 

112-114. Explain the force of even in each line. 

116. What figure in the line? 

120. What is the attribute in this clause? 

121. Give the antecedents of it and its. 

122-124. Analyze the clause. 

127, 128. Point out the principal and the subordinate clause. 

131. In what case is confederacy ? 

132. adamantine vigor. What figure? 


110 

115 

120 

125 

130 



364 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


the Batavian and Frisian races with the subtler, more 
delicate, and more graceful national elements, in which 
the genius of the Frank, the Roman, and the Roman¬ 
ized Celt were so intimately blended. As long as the 
father of the country lived such a union was possible. 
His power of managing men was so unquestionable 
that there was always a hope, even in the darkest hour; 
for men felt implicit reliance as well on his intellectual 
resources as on his integrity. This power of dealing 
with his fellow-men he manifested in the various ways 
in which it has been usually exhibited by statesmen. 
He possessed a ready eloquence—sometimes impassion¬ 
ed, oftener argumentative, always rational. His influ¬ 
ence over his audience was unexampled in the annals 
of that country or age; j T et he never condescended to 
flatter the people. He never followed the nation, but 
always led her in the path of duty and of honor; and 
was much more prone to rebuke the vices than to pan¬ 
der to the passions of his hearers. He never failed to 
administer ample chastisement to parsimony, to jeal¬ 
ousy, to insubordination, to intolerance, to infidelity, 
wherever it was due; nor feared to confront the states 
or the people in their most angry hours, and to tell 
them the truth to their faces. This commanding posi¬ 
tion he alone could stand upon; for his countrymen 
knew the generosity which had sacrificed his all for 


Analysis— 135, 136. Who are meant by the Frank , the Roman, 
and the Romanized Celt ? 

139. Dispose of there and even. 

139. Point out the figure in this line. 

149. What figure in the line ? 

150, 151. What is the meaning of pander t 
151-163. Analyze these lines. 

155. Point out the figure in the line. 


135 

140 

145 

150 

155 



JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. 365 

them; the self-denial which had eluded rather than 
sought political advancement, whether from king or 
people; and the untiring devotion which had conse¬ 
crated a whole life to toil and danger in the cause of 
their emancipation. While, therefore, he was ever 
ready to rebuke, and always too honest to flatter, he at 
the same time possessed the eloquence which could 
convince or persuade. He knew how to reach both 
the mind and the heart of his hearers. His orations, 
whether extemporaneous or prepared; his written mes¬ 
sages to the States-General, to the provincial author¬ 
ities, to the municipal bodies; his private correspond¬ 
ence with men of all ranks, from emperors and kings 
down to secretaries, and even children,—all show an 
easy flow of language, a fullness of thought, a power of 
expression rare in that age, a fund of historical allusion, 
a considerable power of imagination, a warmth of senti¬ 
ment, a breadth of view, a directness of purpose; a range 
of qualities, in short, which would in themselves have 
stamped him as one of the master-minds of his century 
had there been no other monument to his memory than 
the remains of his spoken or written eloquence. 


Analysis. —159. Give the case of self-denial. 

166. Name the object of knew. 

172. Dispose of down to. Parse all. Name the objects of show. 
177. Dispose of in short. 


160 

165 

170 

175 

180 



11. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING, 

1780 - 1842 . 

William Ellery Channing, the popular and able 
theologian and essayist, was the son of William Chan¬ 
ning, a distinguished lawyer of Newport, Rhode Island, 
where the son was born on the 7th of April, 1780. 
Channing was educated at Harvard, where he graduated 
with high honors in 1798. He was then, for eighteen 
months, private tutor in a family in Richmond, Vir¬ 
ginia, and subsequently, in 1803, he became pastor of 
the Federal Street Church in Boston. In 1822 he vis¬ 
ited Europe, where he made the acquaintance of Words¬ 
worth and Coleridge, both of whom became his ardent 
admirers and fast friends. It was Coleridge who said 
of Channing, “ He has the love of wisdom and the wis¬ 
dom of love.” 

On his return from Europe he continued his pastoral 
duties unaided until 1824, when he received a colleague, 
and from that time forward he gave more attention to 
literature. 

Channing was a speaker and writer who endeared 
himself to his countrymen not only through his literary 
work, but also by his humility and excellence as a 
Christian gentleman; and it is said that he numbered 
•people of all sects among his friends: His favorite top¬ 
ics were those which had more or less bearing on Chris¬ 
tian philanthropy and reform. His articles on Milton, 
Napoleon, and Fenelon, which appeared from 1826 to 
1829, won for him wide celebrity, as did also his valu¬ 
able lectures, among the best of them being Self-Culture, 

366 


WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. 


367 


first delivered in 1839, and the series on the Elevation of 
the Laboring Classes , delivered in 1840. Channing’s works 
have been translated into both German and French, 
and extensive editions have been published in England, 
France, and Germany. The most complete edition of 
his works was that published in Boston in 1848, six 
years after his death. 

Channing died on the 2d of October, 1842, while on a 
mountain-excursion, and was buried at Mount Auburn, 
where a monument, designed by his friend Washington 
Allston, was erected to his memory. 


CRITICISM BY GEORGE S. HILLARD. 

Dr. Channing’s style is admirably suited for the ex¬ 
position of moral and spiritual truth. It is rich, flow¬ 
ing, and perspicuous; even its diffuseness, which is its 
obvious literary defect, is no disadvantage in this aspect. 
There is a persuasive charm over all his writings, flow¬ 
ing from his earnestness of purpose, his deep love of 
humanity, his glowing hopes, and his fervid religious 
faith. He has a poet’s love of beauty and a prophet’s 
love of truth. He lays the richest of gifts upon the 
purest of altars. The heart expands under his influ¬ 
ence, as it does when we see a beautiful countenance 
beaming with the finest expression of benevolence and 
sympathy. 

He was a man of slight frame and delicate organi¬ 
zation. His manner in the pulpit was simple and im¬ 
pressive, and the tonOs of his voice were full of sweet¬ 
ness and penetrating power. He was not one of those 
speakers who produce a great effect upon those who 
hear them for the first time, but those who were accus¬ 
tomed to his teachings recognized in him all the ele¬ 
ments of the highest eloquence. 


368 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


THE SENSE OF BEAUTY. 

Beauty is an all-pervading presence. It unfolds in 
the numberless flowers of the spring. It waves in the 
branches of the trees and the green blades of grass. It 
haunts the depths of the earth and the sea, and gleams 
out in the hues of the shell and the precious stone. And 
not only these minute objects, but the ocean, the moun¬ 
tains, the cloud, the heavens, the stars, the rising and 
setting sun,—all overflow with beauty. The universe is 
its temple; and those men who are alive to it cannot 
lift their eyes without feeling themselves encompassed 
with it on every side. Now, this beauty is so precious, 
the enjoyments it gives are so refined and pure, so con¬ 
genial with our tenderest and most noble feelings, and 
so akin to worship, that it is painful to think of the 
multitude of men as living in the midst of it, and living 
almost as blind to it as if, instead of this fair earth and 
glorious sky, they were tenants of a dungeon. 

An infinite joy is lost to the world by the want of 
culture of this spiritual endowment. Suppose that I 
were to visit a cottage, and see its walls lined with the 
choicest pictures of Raphael, and every spare nook filled 
with statues of the most exquisite workmanship, and 
that I were to learn that neither man, woman, nor child 
ever cast an eye at these miracles of art, how should I 
feel their privation! how should I want to open their 

Analysis. —1. Point out the figure in the line. 

I- 8. Notice the judicious arrangement of short and long sentences. 
Is the style periodic or loose ? 

9. Point out the figure in the line. What is the meaning of alive to it ? 

II- 14. What is the correlative of so in line 11 ? When are these 
two words used correlatively ?. 

16, 17. of this .... sky. Of what is this phrase a modifier ? 

21. Who was Raphael ? 

25, 26. open their eyes. Is eyes used figuratively or literally ? * 


5 

10 

15 

20 

25 



WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. 


369 


eyes and to help them to comprehend and feel the love¬ 
liness and grandeur which in vain courted their notice! 

But every husbandman is living in sight of the works 
of a diviner Artist; and how much would his existence 
be elevated could he see the glory which shines forth in 
their forms, hues, proportions, and moral expression! 

I have spoken only of the beauty of Nature, but how 
much of this mysterious charm is found in the elegant 
arts, and especially in literature ! The best books have 
most beauty. The greatest truths are wronged if not 
linked with beauty; and they win their way most surely 
and deeply into the soul when arrayed in this their 
natural and fit attire. Now, no man receives the true 
culture of a man in whom the sensibility to the beauti¬ 
ful is not cherished; and I know of no condition in life 
from which it should be excluded. Of all luxuries, this 
is the cheapest and most at hand; and seems to me to 
be the most important to those conditions where coarse 
labor tends to give a grossness of mind. From the dif¬ 
fusion of the sense of beauty in ancient Greece, and of 
the taste for music in modern Germany, we learn that 
the people at large may partake of refined gratifications 
which have hitherto been thought to be necessarily re¬ 
stricted to a few. 

Analysis.—27. Dispose of in vain. Mention other elliptical con¬ 
structions of the preposition and its object. 

28. husbandman. Give an equivalent word. 

29. diviner Artist. To whom is reference made? 

30. gloi'y. Is this figurative or literal ? 

33, 34. elegant arts. What arts are referred to here ? 

35. What kind of beauty is meant here? 

35-38. What figure in these lines ? 

41, 42. Of all ... . hand. Analyze. 

43, 44. coarse labor. Why coarse f Explain what is meant by 
grossness of mind. 

47. partake. Is the meaning figurative or literal ? 

24 


30 

35 

40 

45 



12. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 

1803-. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and essayist, was born 
in Boston, Massachusetts, Ma}^ 25, 1803. His prelimi¬ 
nary education was received in the public schools of 
Boston, after the completion of which he entered Har¬ 
vard in 1817, and graduated therefrom in 1821. The 
following five years were spent in teaching and in pre¬ 
paration for the ministry. In March, 1829, he became 
the colleague of Rev. Henry Ware as pastor of the 
Second Unitarian Church of Boston, but he withdrew 
from this position three years later, on account of a 
difference of opinion between himself and the mem¬ 
bers of his church with regard to the Lord’s Supper, 
and sailed to Europe, where he remained nearly a 
year. 

On his return from Europe, in the winter of 1833-34, 
he began his career as a lecturer, a position in which he 
has since won great eminence and distinction. In the 
winter of 1834 he delivered a series of biographical lec¬ 
tures on Michael Angelo, Milton, George Fox, Luther, 
and Edmund Burke. In 1835 he delivered a series of 
ten lectures on English Literature; in 1836, twelve on the 
Philosophy of History; in 1837, ten on Human Culture; 
in 1838, ten on Human Life; in 1839, ten on The Present 
Age; and in 1841, seven on The Times. 

Among Emerson’s prominent books are his orations 
—Man Thinking, published in 1837; Literary Ethics , pub- 

370 


RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 


371 


lished in 1838—and his Essays, the first series of which 
appeared in 1841, the second in 1844, the third in 1870, 
and the fourth in 1871. 

In 1846 he published a volume of poems, and in the 
year 1848 he delivered a course of lectures in Exeter 
Hall, London. In the following year he published his 
Essays on Representative Men, one of his best works, and 
one of those by which he is most favorably known to the 
world of letters. It was the publication of his Repre¬ 
sentative Men that gave to him the title “ the American 
Caflyle,” because in his selection of characters he re¬ 
ceived suggestions from Carlyle’s great work, Heroes 
and Hero- Worship. Emerson removed to Concord, Mas¬ 
sachusetts, in 1835, which has been his place of resi¬ 
dence ever since. 

CRITICISM BY A. BRONSOtf ALCOTT. 

Emerson’s compositions affect us not as logic linked 
in syllogisms, but as voluntaries rather—as preludes, in 
which one is not tied to any design of air, but may vary 
his key or note at pleasure, as if improvised without any 
particular scope of argument; each period, paragraph, 
being a perfect note in itself, however it may chance to 
chime with its accompaniments in the piece, as a waltz 
of wandering stars, a dance of Hesperus with Orion. 
His rhetoric dazzles by its circuits, contrasts, antitheses; 
imagination, as in all sprightly minds, being his wand 
of power.So his books are best read as irregu¬ 

lar writings, in which sentiment is, by his enthusi¬ 
asm, transfused throughout the piece, telling on the 
mind in cadences of a current under-song, giving the 
impression of a connected whole, which it seldom is, 
such is the rhapsodist’s cunning in its structure and 
delivery. 


372 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


GOETHE. 

Note. —The following extract is taken from Emerson’s Represen¬ 
tative Men. 

What distinguishes Goethe for French and English 
readers is a property which he shares with his nation—an 
habitual reference to interior truth. In England and in 
America there is a respect for talent; and, if it is exerted 
in support of any ascertained or intelligible interest or 5 
party, or in regular opposition to any, the public is 
satisfied. In France there is even a greater delight in 
intellectual brilliancy, for its own sake. And in all these 
countries men of talent write from talent. It is enough 
if the understanding is occupied, the taste propitiated—10 
so many columns, so many hours, filled in a lively and 
creditable way. The German intellect wants the French 
sprightliness, the, fine practical understanding of the 
English, and the American adventure; but it has a 
certain probity which never rests in a superficial per- 15 
formance, but asks steadily, To what end f A German 
public asks for a controlling sincerity. Here is activity 
of thought; but what is it for? What does the man 
mean ? Whence, whence all these thoughts ? 


Analysis. —1.. Parse What. What figure in the line ? 

2. property. Give a synonym. 

2, 3. What word is in apposition with property ? 

3. interior truth. What is meant ? 

3-7. In England .... satisfied. Is the sentence periodic or loose? 
7, 8. Notice the use of even. ^Reconstruct this sentence, and make 
it periodic. 

9. of talent and from talent. What kind of modifier is each ? 
9-12. What are the appositives of It ? 

12. wants. What is the meaning ? Name the objects of wants. 

16. Give the meaning of steadily. 

To what end? Write as a complete clause. 

17. public. What is the meaning of public here ? 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 373 

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a 
man behind the book—a personality which, by bijth and 
quality, is pledged to the doctrines there set forth, and 
which exists to see and state things so, and not other¬ 
wise, holding things because they are things. If he can¬ 
not rightly express himself to-day, the same things sub¬ 
sist, and will open themselves to-morrow. There lies the 
burden on his mind—the burden of truth to be declared, 
more or less understood; and it constitutes his business 
and calling in the world to see those facts through, and 
to make them his own. What signifies that he trips 
and stammers, that his voice is harsh or hissing, that 
his method or his tropes are inadequate ? That message 
will find method and imagery, articulation and melody. 
Though he were dumb, it would speak. If not, if there 
be no such God’s word in the man—what care we how 
adroit, how fluent, how brilliant, he is? 

It makes a great difference to the force of any sen¬ 
tence whether there be a man behind it or no. In the 
learned journal, in the influential newspaper, I discern 
no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener some 
moneyed corporation, or some dangler, who hopes, in 
the mask and robes of his paragraph, to pass for some¬ 
body. But through every clause and part of speech of 


Analysis. —20,21. Parse alone. What figure in these lines ? 

23. Dispose of the word so. 

24. holding , etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

20-24. Criticise the construction of the sentence. 

29. calling. Give a synonym. 

30. trips. Give the meaning. 

34. it would speak. What figure ? 

38. Is no a proper word here? 

38, 39. In the learned journal. What figure ? 

40. from. Give a synonym. 

41, 42. What figure? 


20 

25 

30 

35 

40 



374 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


a right book I meet the eyes of the most determined of 
men; his force and terror inundate every word; the 
commas and dashes are alive; so that the writing is 
athletic and nimble—can go far and live long. 

In England and America one may be an adept in the 
writings of a Greek or Latin poet without any poetic 
taste or fire. That a man has spent years on Plato and 
Proclus does not afford a presumption that he holds 
heroic opinions or undervalues the fashions of his town. 
But the German nation have the most ridiculous good 
faith on these subjects; the student out of the lecture- 
room still broods on the lessons, and the professor can¬ 
not divest himself of the fancy that the truths of phil¬ 
osophy have some application to Berlin and Munich. 
This earnestness enables them to outsee men of much 
more talent. Hence, almost all the valuable distinctions 
which are current in higher conversation have been de¬ 
rived to us from Germany. But, whilst men distin¬ 
guished for wit and learning in England and France 
adopt their study and their side with a certain levity, 
and are not understood to be very deeply engaged, from 
grounds of character, to the topic or the part they es- 

Analysis. —44. right hook. Give an equivalent. 
meet the eyes. Is this figurative or literal ? 

44-47. What figure in these lines ? 

45. Name the figure in this line. 

49. a Greek or Latin poet. Criticise. 

50. Who was Plato f 

51. Who was Proclus t 

53. Is nation used here in the abstract or in the concrete ? 

54. 55. out of the lecture-room. What does the phrase modify? 

55. Give the different meanings of broods. 

57. For what are Berlin and Munich remarkable? 

58. Give the meaning of outsee. 

60, 61. derived to us. Criticise. 

63. their side. Explain. 


45 

50 

55 

60 

65 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 


375 


pouse, Goethe, the head and body of the German nation, 
does not speak from talent, but the truth shines through : 
he is very wise, though his talent often veils his wisdom. 
However excellent his sentence is, he has somewhat 
better in view. It awakens my curiosity. He has the 
formidable independence which converse with truth 
gives; hear you or forbear, his fact abides, and your 
interest in the writer is not confined to his story, and 
he dismissed from memory when he has performed his 
task creditably, as a baker when he has left his loaf; 
but his work is the least part of him. The old Eternal 
Genius who built the world has confided himself more 
to this man than to any other. I dare not say that Goethe 
ascended to the highest grounds from -which genius has 
spoken. He has not worshiped the highest unity ; he 
is incapable of a self-surrender to the moral sentiment. 
There are nobler strains in poetry than any he has 
sounded. There are writers poorer in talent whose tone 
is purer and more touches the heart. Goethe can never 
be dear to men. His is not even the devotion to pure 
truth, but to truth for the sake of culture. He has no 
aims less large than the conquest of universal Nature, 
of universal truth, to be his portion: a man not to be 
bribed, nor deceived, nor overawed; of a stoical self- 

Analysis. —66. What figure on nation ? 

68. Point out a figure in the line. 

72. Supply ellipsis. 

74. Parse dismissed. 

75. What figure in the line? 

76. 77. Eternal Genius. Who is meant? 

79. Point out the figure. 

82. Dispose of there. Supply the ellipsis. 

84. Explain the grammatical use of more as here used. 

86, 87. Rewrite this douse. 

88. to he his portion. Of what is this a modifier ? 

89. stoical self-denial. What is the meaning? 


70 

75 

80 

85 



376 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


command and self-denial, and having one test for all 
men: What can you teach me f All possessions are val¬ 
ued by him for that only—rank, privileges, health, time, 
being itself. 

He is the type of culture, the amateur of all arts and 
sciences and events; artistic, but not artist; spiritual, 
but not spiritualist. There is nothing he had not a right 
to know; there is no weapon in the armory of universal 
genius he did not take into his hand, but with peremp¬ 
tory heed that he should not be for a moment prejudiced 
by his instruments. He lays a ray of light under every 
fact, and between himself and his dearest property. 
From him nothing w T as hid, nothing withholden. The 
lurking demons sat to him, and the saint who saw the 
demons; and the metaphysical elements took form. 
“ Piety itself is no aim, but only a means, whereby, 
through purest inward peace, we may attain to highest 
culture.” And his penetration of every secret of the 
fine arts will make Goethe still more statuesque. His 
affections help him, like women employed by Cicero to 
worm out the secret of conspirators. Enmities he has 
none. Enemy of him you may be; if so, you shall 
teach him aught which your good-will cannot, were 
it only what experience will accrue from your ruin. 

Analysis. —92. Give the antecedent of that. With what are rank, 

■privileges, etc. in apposition? 

95. Dispose of artistic and artist , 

97. Of what is to know a modifier ? 

97, 98. Point out the figure. 

100, 101. What figure in the line? 

102. withholden. Modernize. 

104. Supply the ellipsis. 

108. statuesque. What figure? 

109. Point out the figure in the line. 

110. worm out the secret. What figure? 

111. Explain the use of so. 


90 

I 

95 

100 

105 

110 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 


377 


Enemy and welcome, but enemy on high terms. He 
cannot hate anybody; his time is worth too much. 115 
Temperamental antagonisms may be suffered, but like 
feuds of emperors, who fight dignifiedly across king¬ 
doms. 


Analysis. —114. Enemy and welcome, etc. Reconstruct this sen¬ 
tence. 

116. What is the meaning of Temperamental antagonisms ? 

117. Point out the figure. 


EXTRACTS. 

The hand that rounded Peter’s dome, 

And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 
Wrought in a sad sincerity; 

Himself from God he could not free; 

He builded better than he knew : 

The conscious stone to beauty grew.— 

The Problem. 


Oh, when I am safe in my sylvan home, 

I mock at the pride of Greece and Rome; 

And when I am stretched beneath the pines, 

Where the evening star so holy shines, 

I laugh at the lore and pride of man, 

At the sophist schools and the learned clan ; 

For what are they all, in their high conceit, 

When man in the bush with God may meet ?— 

Good-bye , Proud World! 


Thought is the property of him who can entertain it, 
and of him who can accurately place it .—Representative 
Men . 




13. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, 

1819-. 

James Russell Lowell, a distinguished American 
poet, critic, and essayist, was bom in Cambridge, Mas¬ 
sachusetts, February 22, 1819. He graduated in 1838. 
He then studied law in Harvard University, and having 
been admitted to the bar in 1840, he opened an office in 
Boston. He soon, however, abandoned the practice of 
law and devoted himself entirely to literature. 

Lowell’s first published work was his Class Poem , re¬ 
cited at Harvard College when he graduated. In 1841 
he published a volume of poems entitled A Year's Life. 
This was never reprinted, but a new volume of poems, 
containing A Legend of Brittany , Prometheus Ehascus, and 
many shorter pieces, was published in 1844. This was 
followed in 1845 by a volume of prose entitled Conver¬ 
sations on Some Old Poets. A second series of Poems was 
issued in 1848. In the same year also he published The 
Vision of Sir Launfal and the Biglow Papers , the latter 
being a humorous satire written ostensibly by Hosea 
Biglow, into which the Yankee dialect is introduced 
with admirable effect. It was directed chiefly against 
slavery and the war with Mexico in 1846-48. During 
this same year (1848) he published anonymously his 
Fable for Critics, a rhymed essay on the principal living 
American authors. 

Mr. Lowell visited England, France, Switzerland, and 
Italy in 1851, and returned to America in 1852. In 
1854-55 he delivered a course of twelve lectures on the 
British poets, which was received with great favor. 

378 



JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 


379 


In 1855, Mr. Lowell succeeded Longfellow as Professor 
of Modern Languages and Belles-Lettres in Harvard 
College, and in order to qualify himself more fully for 
the duties of the position he went immediately to Eu¬ 
rope, spending a year in study, chiefly in Dresden. 

In 1857 he became editor of the Atlantic Monthly , and 
retained the position up to 1862. In 1863, in conjunc¬ 
tion with Charles E. Norton, he assumed the editorship 
of the North American Review , retaining charge until 1872, 
when he again visited Europe, returning in 1874. 

In addition to the works mentioned, some of Lowell’s 
other chief poems are Under the Willows , Melibceus Hip- 
ponax , The Cathedral , and his Commemoration Ode. Two 
of his chief prose writings are Among my Books and My 
Study -Windows, both issued in 1870. 

Both of the English Universities have conferred de¬ 
grees on Mr. Lowell—Oxford, that of D. C. L. in 1873; 
and Cambridge, that of LL.D. in 1874. 

Mr. Lowell w r as for several years minister-plenipoten¬ 
tiary to Spain, whence he was called to fill the same 
office in England. 

He is without doubt the most polished and scholarly 
of American writers, succeeding equally well in both 
prose and poetry. As an essayist and critic he certain¬ 
ly has no superior, if, indeed, an equal, in the age he 
represents. 

CRITICISM. 

Probably no writer in either America or Europe has 
been so versatile in style as Lowell. He seems equally 
facile in either prose or poetry. No one has the capa¬ 
city of adapting his style so admirably to the picture he 
delineates. Almost every line evinces the keen know¬ 
ledge of human nature and the great scholastic attain¬ 
ments of this writer. In his Biglow Papers we have 


380 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


humor racy and sparkling. In his Vision of Sir Launfal 
we find delicacy and grace. In his Commemoration Ode 
he is grand. In his criticisms—and he has written 
much on both ancient and modern classic authors—he 
is fair and impartial. He seems to have the faculty of 
adapting not only his style, but also his very words, to 
the subject he discusses, in a way which characterizes 
no other writer of either ancient or modern times. 

THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL. 

Note. —The following extract is the prelude to Part First of The 
Vision of Sir Launfal, one of the best of Lowell’s efforts as a poet. 
The poem appeared in 1848, and it has done much to establish the 
reputation of its author as one of the most scholarly of American 
poets. 

Over his keys the musing organist, 

Beginning doubtfully and far away, 

First lets his fingers wander as they list, 

And builds a bridge from Dreamland for his lay. 

Then, as the touch of his loved instrument 5 

Gives hope and fervor, nearer draws his theme, 

First guessed by faint auroral flushes sent 
Along the wavering vista of his dream. 

Not only around our infancy 

Doth heaven with all its splendors lie; 10 


Analysis.— 1-4. Is the sentence periodic or loose ? Rewrite. 

2. What does far modify ? 

3. Give the mode and the tense of wander. The meaning of 
list ? 

4. What is the meaning of lay ? What figure in the line ? 

5. 6. What is the leading clause ? 

7. Explain the figure in this line. 

7, 8. guessed, etc. What does the phrase modify ? 

8. What is the meaning of vista f 

10. with all its splendors , etc. What does the phrase modify ? 



JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 381 

Daily, with souls that cringe and plot, 

We Sinaisr climb, and know it not. 

Over our manhood bend the skies; 

Against our fallen and traitor lives 
The great winds utter prophecies; 

With our faint hearts the mountain strives; 

Its arms outstretched, the druid wood 
Waits with its benedicite; 

And to our age’s drowsy blood 
Still shouts the inspiring sea. 

Earth gets its price for what earth gives us : 

The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, 

The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us, 

We bargain for the graves we lie in; 

At the devil’s booth are all things sold, 

Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; 

For a cap and bells our lives we pay; 

Bubbles we buy with a whole soul’s tasking ; 

’Tis Heaven alone that is given away, 

’Tis only God may be had for the asking. 

No price is set on the lavish summer; 

June may be had by the poorest comer. 


Analysis. —12. Point out the figure in the line. What is the 
antecedent of it? 

13-16. Are the clauses periodic or loose ? Rewrite. What figure 
in these lines ? 

17-20. Point out the figure. 

18. benedicite, a blessing. 

19. Explain the line. 

21-32. Mention the particulars expressed by the general statement. 

22. What relative should be supplied ? 

23. who comes, etc. Is the clause restrictive or non-restrictive ? 

25. Give the meaning of devil’s booth. 

27. cap and bells. What is the meaning ? 

28. Name the figure in the line. 

29. Parse the word alone. Name the modifier of it. 

30. Supply the ellipsis, and name the modifier of it. 


15 

20 

25 

30 



382 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


And what is so rare as a day in June ? 

Then, if ever, come perfect days; 

Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, 

And over it softly her warm ear lays; 

Whether we look or whether we listen, 

We hear life murmur or see it glisten; 

Every clod feels a stir of might, 

An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 

And, groping blindly above it for light, 

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers; 

The flush of life may well be seen 
Thrilling back over hills and valleys ; 

The cowslip startles in meadows green, 

The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice; 

And there’s never a leaf nor a blade too mean 
To be some happy creature’s palace. 

The little bird sits at his door in the sun, 

Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, 

And lets his illumined being o’errun 
With the deluge of summer it receives; 

His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings, 

And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings; 
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,— 

In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best ? 

Analysis.— 35. What is the antecedent of it ? 

36. Explain the line. 

88. Give the mode and the tense of murmur and glisten. 

40. In what case is instinct f Name the modifiers of instinct. 

42. Explain the line. 

43-45. Point out the figures'. * 

46. Change the figurative to plain language. 

47. Explain the use of never. 

49. 50. Point out the figure, and parse like and blossom. 

50. Parse the word Atilt. 

51. Parse o’errun. 

52. Give the meaning of deluge of summer. What figure in the line? 

55. Meaning of this line as applied to humanity ? 

56. Give the meaning of nice ear as here used. Why is best allow¬ 
able here ? 


35 

40 

45 

50 

55 



JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 


383 


Now is the high-tide of the year, 

And whatever of life hath ebbed away 
Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer, 

Into every bare inlet and creek and bay ; 

Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, 

We are happy now because God wills it ; 

No matter how barren the past may have been, 

’Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green. 

We sit in the warm shade and feel right well 
How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell; 

We may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing 
That skies are clear and grass is growing. 

The breeze comes whispering in our ear 
That dandelions are blossoming near, 

That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing, 
That the river is bluer than the sky, 

That the robin is plastering his house hard by ; 

And if the breeze kept the good news back, 

For other couriers we should not lack ; 

We could guess it all by yon heifer’s lowing; 

And hark ! how clear bold Chanticleer, 

Warmed with the new wine of the year, 

Tells all in his lusty crowing! 

Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how; 
Everything is happy now, * 


Analysis. —57-60. Point out the figures in these lines. 

59. ripply cheer. What figure ? 

61. What figure in the line ? 

62. What is the antecedent of it t 

63. Supply the ellipsis in the leading clause, and name the modi¬ 
fiers of it. 

65, 66. Name the object of feel. Parse well. 

67, 68. Name the object of help; also of knowing. 

69, 70. Name the object of whispering. 

73. Parse hard by. 

78, 79. Point out the figure in these lines. What docs Warmed , 
etc. modify? 


60 

65 

70 

75 

80 



384 


STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Everything is upward striving; 

’Tis as easy now for the heart to be true 
As for grass to be green or skies to be blue— 

’Tis the natural way of living. 85 

Who knows whither the clouds have fled ? 

In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; 

And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, 

The heart forgets its sorrow and ache; 

The soul partakes the season’s youth, 90 

And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe 
Lie deep ’neath a silence pure and smooth, 

Like burned-out craters healed with snow. 

What wonder if Sir Launfal now 

Remembered the keeping of his vow ? 95 


Analysis. —83. Name the modifier of it. 
85. Name the antecedent of it. 

87. Give a synonym for wake. 

9P-93. Point out the figure in these lines. 


EXTRACT. 

Once to every man and nation come§ the moment to decide, 

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side: 
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah offering each the bloom 
or blight, 

Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, 
And the choice goes by for ever ’twixt that darkness and that 
light. 


The Present Crisis. 




14. WASHINGTON IRVING, 

1783 - 1859 . 

Washington Irving, one of the most graceful and 
polished prose-writers of America, was horn in New 
York, April 3, 1783. His ancestors on the father’s side 
were Scotch, his mother being English. 

At the age of sixteen Irving left school to engage in 
the study of law, but literature had greater attractions 
for him, and in 1802 he began a series of papers for the 
Morning Chronicle under the signature of “ Jonathan Old- 
style,” choosing for his themes mainly social topics and 
local occurrences. 

Being threatened with consumption in 1804, he went 
to Europe, and spent several months in Italy and the 
south of France. At Home he became intimately ac¬ 
quainted with Washington Allston, under whose tuition 
he made an attempt to become a painter, but three days’ 
experience convinced him that he had not the talent to 
make him an artist. Having visited Switzerland, the 
Netherlands, Paris, and London, he returned to the 
United States in 1806, and was admitted to the bar, 
but he never practiced his profession. 

In 1807, in connection with his brother William and 
James K. Paulding, he began a serial entitled Salma¬ 
gundi; or , The Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot 
Langstaff, Esq., and Others , which was issued at irregular 
intervals in 18mo form. It was full of personal allu¬ 
sions and humorous hits, which gave it immediate 
success. 


25 


385 


386 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

Irving’s next literary venture was a History of New 
York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. The book was begun 
by Peter and Washington Irving as a burlesque on a 
handbook of the city of New York then just published; 
but the elder brother having sailed to Europe, Washing¬ 
ton elaborated the original plan and completed the book 
himself. In order to introduce it to the public, an ad¬ 
vertisement was inserted in the Evening Post a few days 
before the appearance of the book, inquiring for “a 
small elderly gentleman, dressed in an old black coat 
and cocked hat, by the name of Knickerbocker,” who 
was represented as having disappeared from the Co¬ 
lumbia Hotel, and left behind “ a very curious kind 
of a written book.” The book appeared in 1809, and 
met at once with a flattering and cordial reception. 
The style in which it is written somewhat resembles 
that of Swift. For a time the burlesque is said to have 
given serious offence to some of the New York fam¬ 
ilies whose ancestors were caricatured, and Irving, to 
appease their wrath, finally inserted an apologetic 
preface. 

Being a silent partner in the mercantile house of his 
brothers, Irving sailed for Europe in 1815. But the 
house soon became bankrupt, and the author was com¬ 
pelled to write for a living. His rambles through 
England and Scotland had furnished him excellent 
material, and in 1818 the Sketch-Book appeared in the 
United States in pamphlet numbers. Some of these 
were copied in the London Literary Gazette , and Irving 
collected the various sketches and sought a publisher in 
England to issue them in book-form. Failing in this, 
he put the first volume to press in 1820 at his own ex¬ 
pense, but the failure of the publisher prevented the. 
issue. Sir Walter Scott now succeeded in having Mur¬ 
ray, the London publisher, purchase the manuscript for 


WASHING TON IRVING. 


387 


two hundred pounds—a sum which he doubled when 
the book became successful. The Sketch-Book is consid¬ 
ered Irving’s best book. It is written in admirable 
style and in the purest of diction. It has proved to 
be the favorite work of the author in both England 
and America. It is the work, indeed, on which Irv¬ 
ing’s success as an author is based, and from the time 
of its publication to the present he has never lacked for 
a wide circle of appreciative readers. 

The Sketch-Book was followed in 1822 by Bracebridge 
Hall; or, The Humorists, for which the publisher paid 
one thousand guineas. Two years later The Tales of a 
Traveler followed, which Irving sold for fifteen hun¬ 
dred pounds. This book met with severe criticism in 
both Europe and America, but his History of Christopher 
Columbus, four volumes, published soon after, and which 
he sold to the publishers for three thousand guineas, was 
highly praised, and it restored to the author his popu¬ 
larity. 

The other works of Irving are— Chronicles of the Con¬ 
quest of Grenada , two volumes; Voyages of the Companions 
of Columbus ; The Alhambra, two volumes, a portion of it 
written in the old Moorish palace, where Irving stayed 
several months; The Crayon Miscellany ; Astoria, two vol¬ 
umes ; Adventures of Captain Bonneville of the U. S. A. in 
the Rocky Mountains and the Far West; Wolfords Roost, a 
series of collected magazine articles; The Life of Oliver 
Goldsmith ; Mahomet and his Successors, two volumes : and 
the Life of Washington, five volumes, the last of which 
was issued just three months before Irving’s death. 

Much of Irving’s life was spent in England, where he 
and his works were highly esteemed. In 1831 the Uni¬ 
versity of Oxford conferred on him the degree LL.D. 
Besides other positions abroad, he held that of minis¬ 
ter to Spain from 1842 to 1846. 


388 


STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


For several years preceding his death Irving, who was 
never married, resided near Tarry town, New York, in an 
old Dutch mansion which he named “ Sunnyside.” Here 
he died suddenly, from a disease of the heart, in 1859, 
the funeral procession which bore his body to the grave 
at Tarrytown passing through the historical Sleepy Hol¬ 
low which his genius had made famous. 


CRITICISM BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 

I do not know how to account, on principles of cul¬ 
ture which we recognize, for our author’s style. His 
education was exceedingly defective, nor was his want 
of discipline supplied by the subsequent desultory ap¬ 
plication. He seems to have been born with a rare sense 
of literary proportion and form; into this, as into a 
mould, were run his apparently lazy and really acute 
observations of life. That he thoroughly mastered such 
literature as he fancied there is abundant evidence; that 
his style was influenced by the purest English models is 
also apparent. But there remains a large margin for 
wonder how, with his want of training, he could have 
elaborated a style which is distinctively his own, and is 
as copious, felicitous in the choice of words, flowing, 
spontaneous, flexible, engaging, clear, and as little wea¬ 
risome when read continuously in quantity, as any in 
the English tongue. This is saying a great deal, though 
it is not claiming for him the compactness, nor the 
robust vigor, nor the depth of thought, of many other 
masters in it. It is sometimes praised for its simplici¬ 
ty. It is certainly lucid, but its simplicity is not that 
of Benjamin Franklin’s style; it is often ornate, not sel¬ 
dom somewhat diffuse, and always exceedingly melo¬ 
dious. It is noticeable for its metaphorical felicity. 
But it was not in the sympathetic nature of the author, 


WASHINGTON IRVING. 


389 


to which I just referred, to come sharply to the point. 

It is much to have merited the eulogy of Campbell, 
that he had “ added clarity to the English tongue.” 

ICHABOD CRANE’S RIDE. 

Note. —The following extract from the Sketch-Book is taken from 
Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Sleepy Hollow, as repre¬ 
sented by the author, “is a little valley, or rather lap of land, 
among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole 
world.” It is within a mile or two of Tarrytown on the Hudson. 

* Icliabod Crane was the schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow. On the 
occasion referred to in this extract he had been attending a merry¬ 
making at Mynheer Van Tassel’s, whose daughter, Katrina, was the 
object of his affections. But Ichabod had a rival in Brom Van 
Brunt, who sat gloomily in the corner while the schoolmaster joined 
Katrina in the dance. Before the breaking up of the party Ichabod 
had listened to a number of ghost-stories, prominent among them 
being that of a headless horseman who haunted the bridge over 
which Ichabod must pass on his homeward route that night. 

It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, 
heavy-hearted and crestfallen, pursued his travels home¬ 
ward along the sides of the lofty hills which rise above 
Tarrytown, and which he had traveled so cheerily in the 
afternoon. The hour was as dismal as himself. Far 5 
below him the Tappan Zee spread its dusky and indis¬ 
tinct waste of waters, with here and there the tall mast 
of a sloop riding quietly at anchor under the land. In 
the dead hush of midnight he could even hear the bark¬ 
ing of the watch-dog from the opposite shore of the 10 


Analysis.—1, 2. Name the modifier of It. 

1. witching time. Explain. 

2. crestfallen. What is the figure ? 

5. What does Far modify ? 

6. dusky. What figure ? 

9. Point out the figure in this line. What is the force of even f 



390 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Hudson, but it was so vague and faint as only to give 
an idea of his distance from this faithful companion of 
man. Now and then, too, the long-drawn crowing of a 
cock, accidentally awakened, would sound far, far off 
from some farm-house away among the hills; but it was 
like a dreaming sound in his ear. No signs of life oc¬ 
curred near him, but occasionally the melancholy chirp 
of a cricket, or perhaps the guttural twang of a bull¬ 
frog from a neighboring marsh, as if sleeping uncom¬ 
fortably and turning suddenly in his bed. 

All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard 
in the afternoon now came crowding upon his recollec¬ 
tion. The night grew darker and darker; the stars 
seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds 
occasionally hid them from his sight. He had never 
felt so lonely and dismal. He was, moreover, approach¬ 
ing the very place where many of the scenes of the ghost- 
stories had been laid. In the centre of the road stood an 
enormous tulip tree, which towered like a giant above 
all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a 
kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, 
large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting 
down almost to the earth and rising again into the air. 
It was connected with the tragical story of the unfor¬ 
tunate Andr6, who had been taken prisoner hard by, 
and was universally known by the name of Major An- 


Analysis.—13. Parse too. 

14. accidentally awakened. What does this modify ? 

16. Parse like and sound. 

17,18. melancholy chirp. What figure ? Is twang a good word here ? 
22. came crowding. Dispose of crowding. 

24. to sink deeper. Parse deeper. 

29. What figure in the line ? 

35. hard hy. Parse. 

36. universally. Is this the proper word as used ? 


15 

20 

25 

30 

35 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 


391 


dre’s Tree. The common people regarded it with a mix¬ 
ture of respect and superstition, partly out of sympa¬ 
thy for the fate of its ill-starred namesake, and partly 
from the tales of strange sights and doleful lamentations 
told concerning it. As Ichabod approached this fearful 
tree he began to whistle. He thought his whistle w r as 
answered; it was but a blast sweeping sharply through 
the dry branches. As he approached a little nearer, he 
thought he saw something white hanging in the midst 
of the tree. He paused, and ceased whistling; but on 
looking more narrowly perceived that it was a place 
where the tree had been scathed by lightning, and the 
white wood lay bare. Suddenly he heard a groan ; his 
teeth chattered, and his knees smote against the saddle. 
It was but the rubbing of one huge bough upon another 
as they were swayed about by the breeze. He passed 
the tree in safety, but new perils lay before him. 

About two hundred yards from the tree a small brook 
crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly- 
wooded glen known by the name of Wiley’s Swamp. 
A few rough logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge 
over this stream. On that side of the road where the 
brook entered the wood a group of oaks and chestnuts, 
matted thick with wild grapevines, threw a cavernous 


Analysis. —37. Who are meant by The common 'people ? 
38. What does partly modify ? 

40. What figure in the line ? 

41, 42. fearful tree. What figure? 

43. Dispose of hut. 

47. Substitute a word for narrowly. 

49. Dispose of hare. 

54. Parse about. 

57. Dispose of side hy side. 

58. Dispose of the word where. 

60. thick. Is the word correct as used here ? 


40 

45 

50 

55 

60 



392 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


gloom over it. To pass this bridge was the severest trial. 
It was at this identical spot that the unfortunate Andre 
was captured, and under the covert of those chestnuts 
and vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed who sur¬ 
prised him. This has ever since been considered a 
haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings of the 
school-boy who has to pass it alone after dark. 

As he approached the stream his heart began to 
thump. He surrimoned up, however, all his resolu¬ 
tion, gave his horse half a score of kicks in the ribs, 
and attempted to dash briskly across the bridge. But 
instead of starting forward, the perverse old animal 
made a lateral movement and ran broadside against 
the fence. Ichabod, whose fears increased with the 
delay, jerked the reins on the other side and kicked 
lustily with the contrary foot. It was all in vain. His 
steed started, it is true, but it was only to plunge to the 
opposite side of the road into a thicket of brambles 
and alder-bushes. The schoolmaster now bestowed 
both whip and heel upon the starveling ribs of old 
Gunpowder, who dashed forward, snuffling and snort¬ 
ing, but came to a stand just by the bridge, with a 
suddenness which had nearly sent his rider sprawling 
over his head. Just at this moment a plashy tramp by 

Analysis. —61. What figure in the line? Criticise the sentence 
beginning to pass this bridge, etc. What is the subject of the clause? 

64. sturdy yeomen. Who were they? 

64, 65. Point out a violation of strength in these lines. 

69. Substitute a word for thump. 

73. What is meant by a lateral movement t 

76. Substitute a word for contrary as here used. 

What is the antecedent of It f 

77. it is true. What is in apposition with it? 

80. Point out the figure in the line. 

83. had .... sent. Criticise. 

84. What does just modify ? 


65 

70 

75 

80 



WA SITING TON IRVING. 


393 


the side of the bridge caught the sensitive ear of Ich- 85 
abod. In the dark shadow of the grove on the margin 
of the brook he beheld something huge, misshapen, 
black, and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gath¬ 
ered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready 
to spring upon the traveler. 90 

The hair of the affrighted pedagogue -rose upon his 
head with terror. What was to be done ? To turn and . 
fly was now too late; and, besides, what chance was 
there of escaping ghost or goblin, if such it was, which 
could ride upon the wings of the wind ? Summoning 95 
up, therefore, a show of courage, he demanded, in stam¬ 
mering accents, “ W^o are you ?” He received no reply. 

He repeated his demand in a still more agitated voice. 
Still there was no answer. Once more he cudgeled the 
sides of the inflexible Gunpowder, and, shutting his 100 
eyes, broke forth with involuntary fervor into a psalm- 
tune. Just then the shadowy object of alarm put itself 
in motion, and, with a scramble and a bound, stood at 
once in the middle of the road. Though the night was 
dark and dismal, yet the form of the unknown might 105 
now, in some degree, be ascertained. He appeared to 
be a horseman of large dimensions, and mounted on a 
black horse of powerful frame. He made no offer of 
molestation or sociability, but kept aloof on one side 
of the road, jogging along on the blind side of old 110 


Analysis. —85. caught the ... . ear. What figure ? 

89. Point out the figure in the line. 

91, 92. Eewrite this sentence. 

93. fly. Is this the proper word as used here ? 

95. wings of the wind. What figure ? 

96. Is demanded in this line transitive or intransitive ? 

98, 99. still more .... Still there, etc. Parse still in each expression. 
3 01. Parse broke forth .... into. 

107. Dispose of the word mounted. 



394 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Gunpowder, who had now got over his fright and way¬ 
wardness. 

Ichabod, who had no relish for this strange midnight 
companion, and bethought himself of the adventure of 
Brom Bones with the Galloping Hessian, now quickened 
his steed in hopes of leaving him behind. The stranger, 
however, quickened his horse to an equal pace. Ich¬ 
abod pulled up and fell into a walk, thinking to lag 
behind. The other did the same. His heart began to 
sink within him. He endeavored to resume his psalm- 
tune, but his parched tongue clove to the roof of his 
mouth, and he could not utter a stave. There was some¬ 
thing in the moody and dogged ^lence of this perti¬ 
nacious companion that was mysterious and appalling. 
It was soon fearfully accounted for. On mounting a 
rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow- 
traveler in relief against the sky, gigantic in height and 
muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on per¬ 
ceiving that he was headless! But his horror w r as still 
more increased on observing that the head, which should 
have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on 
the pommel of his saddle! His terror rose to despera¬ 
tion. He rained a shower of kicks and blows upon Gun¬ 
powder, hoping by a sudden movement to give his com- 


An a lysis. —111. Parse got over. 

114. What is the subject of bethought ? 

116. Name the antecedent of him. 

118. Dispose of the expression pulled up. 

120. Is endeavored transitive or intransitive ? 

121. Give the principal parts of clove. 

122. What is the meaning of stave ? 

122, 123. What are the modifiers of something ? 
125. Parse the verb in the clause. 

127. What is the meaning of relief as used here? 
133. Point out the figure in the line. 


115 

120 

125 

130 




WASHINGTON IRVING. 


395 


panion the slip. But the spectre started full jump with 
him. Away they dashed through thick and thin, stones 
flying and sparks flashing at every bound. Ichabod’s 
flimsy garments fluttered in the air as he stretched his 
long, lank body away over his horse’s head in the eager¬ 
ness of his flight. 

An opening in the trees now cheered him with the 
hopes that the church-bridge was at hand. The waver¬ 
ing reflection of a silver star in the bosom of the brook 
told him that he was not mistaken. He saw the walls 
of the church dimly glaring under the trees beyond. He 
recollected the place where Brom Bones’s ghostly com¬ 
petitor had disappeared. “ If I can but reach that 
bridge,” thought Ichabod, “ I am safe.” Just then he 
heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind 
him; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. An¬ 
other convulsive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder 
sprang upon the bridge; he thundered over the resound¬ 
ing planks : he gained the opposite side; and now Ich¬ 
abod cast a look behind to see if his pursuer should 
vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brim¬ 
stone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stir¬ 
rups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. 
Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but 


Analysis. —135. Dispose of the words full jump. 

136. thick and thin. Parse. In what case is stones? 

143. a silver star. What figure ? 

148. What is the object of thought ? 

149. panting and blowing. What parts of speech ? 
dose. What does this word modify ? 

150. Dispose of even. 

152. What figure in the line ? 

354, 155. should vanish. Is the expression as here used correct? 
155. according to. Parse. 

157. What is the antecedent of his? Of him? 


135 

140 

145 

150 

155 




396 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

too late. It encountered his cranium with a tremendous 
crash. He was tumbled headlong into the dust, and 
Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider passed 
by like a whirlwind. 

The next morning the old horse was found without 
his saddle, and with the bridle under his feet, soberly 
cropping the grass at his master’s gate. Ichabod did 
not make his appearance at breakfast. Dinner-hour 
came, but no Ichabod! r The boys assembled at the 
school-house and strolled idly about the banks of the 
brook; but no schoolmaster. Hans Van Ripper now 
began to feel some uneasiness about the fate of poor 
Ichabod and his saddle. An inquiry was set on foot, 
and after diligent investigation they came upon his 
traces. In one part of the road leading to the church 
was found the saddle trampled in the dirt; the tracks 
of horses’ hoofs, deeply dented in the road, and evi¬ 
dently at furious speed, were traced to the bridge, be¬ 
yond which, on the bank of a broad part of the brook, 
where the water ran deep and black, was found the hat 
of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shat¬ 
tered pumpkin. 

Analysis.—162. Dispose of like and whirlwind. 

163. In what case is morningt 

167. Parse Ichabod. 

169.' Dispose of the word schoolmaster. 

171. Dispose of set on foot. 

178. where the water ran, etc. What does the clause modify? 

Dispose of deep and black. 

180. In what case is the word pumpkin ? 


160 

165 

170 

175 

180 



15. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, 

1789 - 1851 . 

James Fenimore Cooper, the celebrated American 
novelist, was born at Burlington, N. J., September 15, 
1789. His father, Judge William Cooper, removed to 
the wild frontier-region of New York State, however, in 
the year 1790, where the novelist spent his boyhood 
years up to the age of thirteen, when he entered Yale 
College. After three years of college-life he withdrew 
to become a midshipman in the United States navy, 
where he followed the life of a sailor for six years, and 
acquired much of the knowledge and experience which 
in after-life made his sea-novels so popular and success¬ 
ful. In 1811 he married the sister of Bishop De Lancey, 
and soon after resigned his commission as lieutenant in 
the navy, and located at Mamaroneck, near the city of 
New York. 

Cooper’s literary life is said to have had this curious 
beginning: While sitting one evening engaged in read¬ 
ing a novel to his wife, he suddenly declared his belief 
that he could write a better novel himself; to prove it, 
he rrfade the experiment, and produced Precaution , which 
was published anonymously in 1819. But his book at¬ 
tracted very little attention, and it is said he never after 
claimed it among his writings. 

In 1821 he published The Spy , a novel founded on the 
incidents of the Revolution. This possessed so much 
power and interest as a romance that it became popular 
at once, not only in America, but also in Europe, where 

397 


398 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

it was translated into nearly all the continental lan¬ 
guages, as well as into Persian and Arabic. It bore 
such a favorable comparison to the Waverley Novels 
that Cooper acquired the name of “ the American Wal¬ 
ter Scott.” 

In 1823 the author’s fame was still more increased by 
The Pilot, the first of his sea-tales. This was followed 
by a long list of novels: Lionel Lincoln, The Last of the 
Mohicans, The Red Rover,- The Prairie, Wept of Wish-ton- 
Wish, The Pathfinder, and many others, the number of 
novels being thirty-three. Nine of these are sea-tales, 
and five form “The Leatherstocking Series.” 

Cooper’s best novels are conceded to be The Spy, The 
Pilot, The Last of the Mohicans, The Red Rover, and The 
Prairie . In addition to his novels he also published a 
Naval History of the United States, Lives of American Naval 
Officers, and a number of sketches of European travel. 

Cooper, at the time of his death, had in press an his¬ 
torical work, The Towns of Manhattan, and he contem¬ 
plated writing a sixth Leatherstocking tale. He died 
suddenly at Cooperstown, N. Y., on the 14th of Sep¬ 
tember, 1851. 

CRITICISM BY RUFUS W. GRISWOLD. 

Cooper has the faculty of giving to his pictures an 
astonishing reality. They are not mere transcripts of 
Nature, though as such they would possess extraordi¬ 
nary merit, but actual creations, embodying the very 
spirit of intelligent and genial experience and obser¬ 
vation. His Indians, notwithstanding all that has been 
written to the contrary, are no more inferior in fidelity 
than they are in poetical interest to those of his most 
successful imitators or rivals. 

His hunters and trappers have the same vividness 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 


399 


and freshness, and in the whole realm of fiction there 
is nothing more actual, harmonious, and sustained. 
They evince not only the first order of inventive power, 
but a profoundly philosophical study of the influences 
of situation upon human character. 

He treads the deck with the conscious pride of home 
and dominion: the aspects of the sea and sky, the ter¬ 
rors of the tornado, the excitement of the chase, the 
tumult of battle, fire, and wreck, are presented by him 
with a freedom and breadth of outline, a glow and 
strength of coloring and contrast, and a distinctness 
and truth of general and particular conception, that 
place him far in advance of all the other artists who 
have attempted with pen or pencil to paint the ocean. 


THE WRECK OF THE ARIEL. 

Note. —The following sketch is taken from The Pilot, one of 
Cooper’s best sea-tales. It portrays vividly the death of Dillon and 
the fidelity of Long Tom Coffin, the coxswain. The opening line is 
the pleading of Merry, a midshipman, in his effort to induce the 
commander, Barnstable, to leave the ship and save himself by 
taking to the whale-boat in which his sailors are waiting for him. 

“ Now, hear me,” said the boy, urging his request to 
tears: “ if not for my sake or for your own sake, Mr. 
Barnstable, or for the hopes of God’s mercy, go into the 
boat for the love of my cousin Katherine.” 

The young lieutenant paused in his troubled walk, 5 
and for a moment he cast a glance of hesitation at the 
cliffs; but at the next instant his eyes fell on the ruin * 
of his vessel; and he answered, 


Analysis.— 1, 2. Explain the latter part of the line urging 
tears. 

1-4. Analyze the sentence. 

5. Point out the figure in the line. 




400 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

“ Never, boy, never! If my hour has come, I will not 
shrink from my fate.” 

“ Listen to the men, dear sir: the boat will be swamped 
alongside the wreck, and their cry is that without you 
they will not let her go.” 

Barnstable motioned to the boat, to bid the hoy enter 
it, and turned away in silence. 

“Well,” said Merry with firmness, “if it be right that 
a lieutenant shall stay by the wreck, it must also be 
right for a midshipman.—Shove off: neither Mr. Barn¬ 
stable nor myself will quit the vessel.” 

“ Boy, your life has been entrusted to my keeping, 
and at my hands will it be required,” said his com¬ 
mander, lifting the struggling youth and tossing him 
into the arms of the seamen. “ Away with ye! and 
God be with you! There is more weight in you now 
than can go safe to land.” 

Still the seamen hesitated, for they perceived the cox¬ 
swain moving with a steady tread along the deck, and 
they hoped he had relented, and would yet persuade 
the lieutenant to join his crew. But Tom, imitating the 
example of his commander, seized the latter suddenly 
in his powerful grasp, and threw him over the bulwarks 
with an irresistible force. At the same moment he cast 
the fast of the boat from the pin that held it; and, lift¬ 
ing his broad hands high into the air, his voice was 
heard in the tempest. 

“ God’s will be done with me!” he cried. “ I saw the 


Analysis.—9. What is meant by my hour? 
12. Point out the attribute-clause. 

14. Explain the office of to bid. 

23. Away with ye ! Dispose of these words. 
28. Name the object of hoped. 

32, 33. Explain these lines. 

36. Point out the object of cried. 


10 

15 

20 

25 

30 

35 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 401 

first timber of the Ariel laid, and shall live just long 
enough to see it turn out of her bottom; after which I 
wish to live no longer.” 

But his shipmates were swept far beyond the sounds 
of his voice before half these words were uttered. All 
command of the boat was rendered impossible by the 
numbers it contained, as well as the raging of the surf; 
and as it rose on the white crest of a wave Tom saw his 
beloved little craft for the last time. It fell into a trough 
of the sea; and in a few moments more its fragments 
were ground into splinters on the adjacent rocks. The 
coxswain still remained where he had cast off the rope, 
and beheld the numerous heads and arms that appeared 
rising at short intervals on the waves—some making 
powerful and w r ell-directed efforts to gain the sands, 
that were becoming visible as the tide fell, and others 
wildly tossed in the frantic movements of helpless de¬ 
spair. The honest old seaman gave a cry of joy as he 
saw Barnstable issue from the surf bearing the form of 
Merry in'safety to the sands, where, one by one, several 
seamen soon appeared also, dripping and exhausted. 
Many others of the crew were carried in a similar 
manner to places of safety, though, as Tom returned 
to his seat on the bowsprit, he could not conceal from 
his reluctant eyes the lifeless forms that were, in other 
spots, driven against the rocks with a fury that soon left 
them but few of the outward vestiges of humanity. 

Dillon and the coxswain were now the sole occupants 
of their dreadful station. The former stood in a kind 


Analysis. —40. What does far modify ? 

41. Is were uttered correct as used here ? 

43. Give the case of raging. What figure in the line ? 
45. Give a synonym for craft. 

45, 46. trough of the sea. What figure ? 

61. reluctant eyes. What figure? 

26 


40 

45 

50 

55 

60 

65 



402 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

of stupid despair, a witness of the scene we have related; 
but as his curdled blood began again to flow more warmly 
through his heart he crept close to the side of Tom with 
that sort of selfish feeling that makes even hopeless 
misery more tolerable when endured in participation 
with another. 

“ When the tide falls,” he said in a voice that betrayed 
the agony of fear, though his words expressed the re¬ 
newal of hope, “ we shall be able to walk to land.” 

“ There was One, and only One, to whose feet the waters 
were the same as a dry deck,” returned the coxswain; 
“ and none but such as have His power will ever be able 
to walk from these rocks to the sands.” The old seaman 
paused, and turning his eyes, which exhibited a mingled 
expression of disgust and compassion, on his companion, 
he added, with reverence, “ Had you thought more of 
Him in fair weather, your case would be less to be 
pitied in this tempest.” 

“ Do you still think there is much danger ?” asked 
Dillon. 

“To them that have reason to fear death. Listen! 
Do you ’Hear that hollow noise beneath ye?” 

“ ’Tis the wind driving by the vessel.” 

“ ’Tis the poor thing herself,” said the affected cox¬ 
swain, “ giving her last groans. The water is breaking 
upon her decks, and in a few minutes more the hand¬ 
somest model that ever -cut a wave will be like the 
chips that fell from her in framing.” 


Analysts.—66. In what case is witness t 
68. What does the word close modify ? 
72-74. Analyze this sentence. 

75-77. What figure? 

77. How are such and as used ? 

89. Name the antecedent of thing. 

90-93. What figures in these lines? 


70 

75 

80 

85 

90 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 


403 


“ Why, then, did you remain here ?” cried Dillon 
wildly. 

“ To die in my coffin, if it should be the will of God,” 
returned Tom. “ These waves are to me what the land 
is to you : I was born on them, and I have always meant 
that they shall be my grave.” 

“ But—I—I,” shrieked Dillon, “ I am not ready to 
die!—I cannot die !—I will not die!” 

“ Poor wretch !” muttered his companion, “ you must 
go like the rest of us; when the death-watch is called, 
none can skulk from the muster.” 

“ I can swim,” Dillon continued, rushing with frantic 
eagerness to the side of the wreck. “ Is there no billet 
of wood, no rope, that I can take with me?” 

“None; everything has been cut away or carried off 
by the sea. If you are about to strive for your life, take 
with you a stout heart and a clean conscience, and trust 
the rest to God.” 

“ God!” echoed Dillon in the madness of his frenzy. 
“ I know no God; there is no God that knows me 1” 

“Peace!” said the deep tones of the coxswain, in a 
voice that seemed to speak in the elements; “blas¬ 
phemer, peace!” 

The heavy groaning produced by the water in the 
timbers of the Ariel at that moment added its impulse 
to the raging feelings of Dillon, and he cast himself 
headlong into the sea. The water, thrown by the roll¬ 
ing of the surf on the beach, was necessarily returned 
to the ocean in eddies, in different places favorable to 
such an action of the element. Into the edge of one 
of these counter-currents, that was produced by the 

Analysis. —103. Parse like and rest. 

103, 104. Point out the figure. 

109. about to strive, etc. This is a prepositional phrase-attribute. 

116. In what case is peace f 


95 

100 

105 

110 

115 

120 



404 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

very rocks on which the schooner lay, and which the 
watermen call the “ under-tow,” Dillon had unknow¬ 
ingly thrown his person; and when the waves had 
driven him a short distance from the wreck, he was 
met by a stream that his most desperate efforts could 
not overcome. He was a light and powerful swimmer, 
and the struggle was hard and protracted. With the 
shore immediately before his eyes and at no great dis¬ 
tance, he was led, as by a false phantom, to continue his 
efforts, although they did not advance him a foot. The 
old seaman, who at first had watched his motions with 
careless indifference, understood the danger of his situa¬ 
tion at a glance, and, forgetful of his own fate, he shouted 
aloud, in a voice that was driven over the struggling 
victim to the ears of his shipmates on the sands, 

“ Sheer to port, and clear the under-tow! Sheer to 
the southward!” 

Dillon heard the sounds, but his faculties were too 
much obscured by terror to distinguish their object; 
he, however, blindly yielded to the call, and gradually 
changed his direction until his face was once more 
turned toward the vessel. The current swept him 
diagonally by the rocks, and he was forced into an 
eddy where he had nothing to contend against but 
the waves, whose violence was much broken by the 
wreck. In this state he continued still to struggle, but 
with a force that was too much weakened to overcome 
the resistance he met. Tom looked around him for a 
rope, but not one presented itself to his hands; all had 
gone over with the spars or been swept away by the 
waves. At this moment of disappointment his eyes 
met those of the desperate Dillon. Calm and inured 
to horrors as was the veteran seaman, he involuntarily 


125 

130 

135 

140 

145 

150 

155 


Analysis. —137. Name the modifiers of shouted. 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 


405 


passed his hand before his brow as if to exclude the 
look of despair he encountered; and when, a moment 
afterward, he removed the rigid member, he beheld the 160 
sinking form of the victim as it gradually settled in the 
ocean, still struggling with regular but impotent strokes 
of the arms and feet to gain the wreck and to preserve 
an existence that had been so much abused in its hour 
of allotted probation. “ He will soon know his God, 165 
and learn that his God knows him,” murmured the 
coxswain to himself. As he yet spoke the wreck of 
the Ariel yielded to an overwhelming sea, and after a 
universal shudder her timbers and planks gave way, 
and were swept toward the cliffs, bearing the body of 170 
the simple-hearted coxswain among the ruins. 

Analysis. —158. Dispose of as if. 

161. the victim. Who is meant? 

168. overwhelming sea. What figure ? 

169. universal shudder. Criticise. Point out the figure in the line. 

171. simple-hearted. What figure? 



16. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, 

1804 - 1864 . 

Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American novelist of rare 
merit, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, July 4, 1804.. 
He entered Bowdoin College, Maine, and graduated in 
1825 in the same class with the poet Longfellow. Ex- 
President Franklin Pierce, who was a member of the 
class of 1824, was his intimate personal friend. 

After quitting college, Hawthorne resided many years 
in Salem, leading a life of solitude, meditation, and 
study. It is said he secluded himself even from his 
own family, walking out alone at night, and- spending 
the days in writing wild and fanciful tales, most of 
which he burned, but some of which were printed in 
the periodicals of the day. 

His first literary venture was a romance entitled Fan- 
shawe , which was published anonymously in 1828. Haw¬ 
thorne, however, never acknowledged its authorship, and 
it was never reprinted. 

His first successful work was a collection of tales which 
he selected from his previously published sketches in the 
various periodicals, called Twice-Told Tales. Longfellow 
spoke of it in the North American Review in high praise, 
but it at first did not attract much attention from the 
public. Gradually, however, it won its way to favor, 
and in 1842 a new edition was issued. 

In 1838, Hawthorne was appointed a weigher and 
gauger in the custom-house at Salem by the historian 
Bancroft, who was then surveyor of the port, and he 
held this position until the Presidency of Harrison in 


NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 


407 


1841, when he was removed. He then lived for a time 
at Brook Farm, being one of the founders of the com¬ 
munity, but soon removed to Boston, where he married 
Miss Sophia Peabody, and then took up his residence 
in the old manse at Concord, where he wrote Mosses 
from an Old Manse, published in 1846. 

In this same year Mr. Hawthorne w r as appointed sur¬ 
veyor of the port of Salem, and, removing thither, he 
held the position for three } T ears. His next novel, and 
the most powerful and popular he ever wrote, The Scar¬ 
let Letter, was published in the year 1850. This story 
gave its author a widespread reputation on both sides 
of the Atlantic. The next year he published The House 
of Seven Gables, and in 1852 The Blithedale Romance. 
During this same year he returned to Concord, but the 
next year his friend President Pierce appointed him 
consul at Liverpool, a post which he held until 1857, 
when he resigned and spent two years in travel through 
France and Italy. On his return to the United States 
in 1860 he published The Marble Faun, by many thought 
to be his best romance. In addition to the above-men¬ 
tioned works he published True Stories from History and 
Biography, The Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls, Tangle- 
wood Tales, Our Old Home , and others. 

Hawthorne lived quietly at his Concord home from 
1860 to 1864, when he set out on a journey through 
New Hampshire with his friend ex-President Pierce. 
Having reached a hotel at Plymouth, he stopped for 
the night, and was found dead in his bed on the fol¬ 
lowing morning, May 19, 1864. 


CRITICISM BY R. H. STODDARD. 

The writings of Hawthorne are marked by subtle 
imagination, conscious power of analysis, and exquisite 


408 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

diction. He studied exceptional developments of cha¬ 
racter, and was fond of exploring secret crypts of emo¬ 
tion. His shorter stories are remarkable for originality 
and suggestiveness, and his larger ones are as absolute 
creations as Hamlet or Undine. Lacking the accomplish¬ 
ment of verse, he was in the highest sense a poet. His 
work is pervaded by manly personality and by almost 
feminine delicacy and gentleness. He inherited the 
gravity of his Puritan ancestors, without their super¬ 
stition, and learned in his solitary meditations a know¬ 
ledge of the night-side of life which would have filled 
them with suspicion. A profound anatomist of the 
heart, he was singularly free from morbidness, and in 
his darkest speculations concerning evil was robustly 
right-minded. He worshiped conscience with his in¬ 
tellectual as well as his moral nature; it is supreme in 
all he wrote. Besides these mental traits, he possessed 
the literary quality of style—a grace, a charm, a per¬ 
fection of language, which no other American writer 
ever possessed in the same degree, and which places 
him among the great masters of English prose. 

THE OLD MANSE. 

Note.— The following extract, which is a part of Hawthorne's de¬ 
scription of his home at Concord, is taken from Mosses from an Old 
Manse. The manse was located near the scene of the Concord fight 
of April, 1775. 

Perhaps the reader—whom I cannot help considering 
as my guest in the Old Manse, and entitled to all cour¬ 
tesy in the way of sight-showing,—perhaps he will 
choose to take a nearer view of the memorable spot. 
We stand now on the river’s brink. It may well be 5 
called the Concord, the river of peace and quietness, for 


Analysis.—4. Why memorable spot f 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 


409 


it is certainly the most unexcitable and sluggish stream 
that ever loitered, imperceptibly, toward its eternity, the 
sea. Positively, I had lived three weeks beside it before 
it grew quite clear to my perception which way the cur-10 
rent flowed. It never has a vivacious aspect, except 
when a north-western breeze is vexing its surface on a 
sunshiny da}^. From the incurable indolence of its na¬ 
ture the stream is happily incapable of becoming the 
slave of human ingenuity, as is the fate of so many a 15 
wild, free mountain-torrent. While all things else are 
compelled to subserve some useful purpose, it idles its 
sluggish life away in lazy liberty, without turning a sol¬ 
itary spindle or affording even water-power enough to 
grind the corn that grows upon its banks. The torpor 20 
of its movement allows it nowhere a bright, pebbly 
shore, nor so much as a narrow strip of glistening sand 
in any part of its course. It slumbers between broad 
prairies, kissing the long meadow-grass, and bathes the 
overhanging boughs of elder-bushes and willows or the 25 
roots of elm and ash trees and clumps of maples. Flags 
and rushes grow along its plashy shore; the yellow 
water-lily spreads its broad, flat leaves on the margin; 
and the fragrant white pond-lily abounds, generally se¬ 
lecting a position just so far from the river’s brink that 30 
it cannot be grasped save at the hazard of plunging in. 

Analysis.—7 .unexcitable. What figure here? 

8. Point out the figure in the line. 

9, 10. before it. What is the modifier of it ? 

12. Point out the figure in the line. 

13, 14. Name the figures. 

16. Dispose of else. 

18. What figure in the line ? 
solitary. Give the meaning. 

23. It slumbers. What figure ? 

25. Point out the figure. 

30. What figure in the line ? 



410 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


It is a marvel whence this perfect flower derives its 
loveliness and perfume, springing as it does from the 
black mud over which the river sleeps, and where lurk 
the slimy eel, and speckled frog, and the mud-turtle 
whom continual washing cannot cleanse. It is the 
very same black mud out of which the yellow lily 
sucks its rank life and noisome odor. Thus we see, 
too, in the world, that some persons assimilate only 
what is ugly and evil from the same moral circum¬ 
stances which supply good and beautiful results—the 
fragrance of celestial flowers—to the daily life of 
others. .... 

The Old Manse!—we had almost forgotten it, but will 
return thither through the orchard. This was set out 
by the last clergyman in the decline of his life, when the 
neighbors laughed at the hoary-headed man for planting 
trees from which he could have no prospect of gather¬ 
ing fruit. Even had that been the case, there was only 
so much the better motive for planting them in the pure 
and unselfish hope of benefiting his successors—an end 
so seldom achieved by more ambitious efforts. But the 
old minister, before reaching his patriarchal age of 
ninety, ate the apples from this orchard during many 
years, and added silver and gold to his annual stipend 
by disposing of the superfluity. 

It is pleasant to think of him walking among the 


Analysis. —32. Name the modifier of It. 

34. Point out the figure. 

37. Parse very. 

38. noisome. Give the meaning. 

42. Point out the figure. 

44. Explain the line. 

45. Parse set out. 

49, 50. only so much the better. Parse these words. 

51, 52. an end , etc. What does the expression modify ? 


35 

40 

45 

50 

55 




NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 


411 


trees in the quiet afternoons of early autumn, and pick¬ 
ing up here and there a windfall, while he observes how 
heavily the branches are weighed down, and computes 
the number of empty flour-barrels that will be filled by 
their burden. He loved each tree, doubtless, as if it 
had been his own child. An orchard has a relation to 
mankind, and readily connects itself with matters of 
the heart. The trees possess a domestic character; they 
have lost the wild nature of their forest kindred, and 
have grown humanized by receiving the care of man as 
well as by contributing to his wants. 

I have met with no other such pleasant trouble in 
the world as that of finding myself, with only the two 
or three mouths which it was my privilege to feed, the 
sole inheritor of the old clergyman’s wealth of fruits. 
Throughout the summer there were cherries and cur¬ 
rants ; and then came Autumn, with his immense bur¬ 
den of apples, dropping them continually from his over¬ 
laden shoulders as he trudged along. In the stillest 
afternoon, if I listened, the thump of a great apple was 
audible, falling without a breath of wind, from the mere 
necessity of perfect ripeness. And, besides, there were 
pear trees that flung down bushels upon bushels of 
heavy pears; and peach trees which, in a good year, tor¬ 
mented me with peaches, neither to be eaten nor kept, 
nor, without labor and perplexity, to he given away. 

The idea of an infinite generosity and inexhaustible 
bounty on the part of our mother Nature was well worth 
obtaining through such cares as these. That feeling can 

Analysis. —60. weighed down. Parse. 

62. Dispose of doubtless. 

74. Point out the figure. 

77. thump. What figure ? 

81, 82. tormented, etc. What figure ? 

85, 86. What figure in the line ? Parse well worth obtaining. 


60 

65 

70 

75 

! 

80 

l 85 



412 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

be enjoyed in perfection not only by the natives of sum¬ 
mer islands, where the bread-fruit, the cocoa, the palm, 
and the orange grow spontaneously and hold forth the 
ever-ready meal, but likewise almost as well by a man 
long habituated to city life, who plunges into such a 
solitude as that of the Old Manse, where he plucks the 
fruit of trees that he did not plant, and which, there¬ 
fore, to my heterodox taste, bear the closer resemblance 
to those that grew in Eden. 

Not that it can be disputed that the light toil requisite 
to cultivate a moderately sized garden imparts such zest 
to kitchen vegetables as is never found in those of the 
market-gardener. Childless men, if they would know 
something of the bliss of paternity, should plant a seed, 
be it squash, bean, Indian corn, or perhaps a mere flower 
or worthless weed—should plant it with their own hands, 
and nurse it from infancy to maturity altogether by their 
own care. If there be not too many of them, each in¬ 
dividual plant becomes an object of separate interest. 

My garden, that skirted the avenue of the Manse, was 
of precisely the right extent. An hour of two of morn¬ 
ing labor was all that was required. But I used to visit 
and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep 
contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love 
that nobody could share or conceive of who had never 
taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the 

Analysis.— 88. Parse where. 

89, 90. Name the figure. 

91. Give a synonym for habituated. 

93. Parse that. 

94. Why heterodox taste ? 

96. Name the modifier of it. 

103. Point out the figure. 

110. vegetable progeny. What figure? 

111. conceive of. Parse. 

112. Name the modifier of it. 


90 

95 

100 

105 

110 



NATHANIEL IIA WTIIOHNE. 


413 


most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of 
beans thrusting aside the soil, or a row of earl} 7 - peas just 
peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green. 
Later in the season the humming-birds were attracted 
by the blossoms of a peculiar variety of bean; and they 
were a joy to me, those little spiritual visitants, for deign¬ 
ing to sip any food out of my nectar-cups. Multitudes 
of bees used to bury themselves in the yellow blossoms 
of the summer squashes. This, too, was a deep satisfac¬ 
tion, although, when they had laden themselves with 
sweets, they flew away to some unknown hive which 
would give back nothing in requital of what my garden 
had contributed. But I was glad thus to fling a bene¬ 
faction upon the passing breeze, with the certainty that 
somebody must profit by it, and that there would be a 
little more honey in the w r orld to allay the sourness and 
bitterness which mankind is always complaining of. Yes, 
indeed, my life was the sweeter for that honey. 


Analysis.—119. nectar-cups. What figure? 

124. Give a synonym for requital. 

128, 129. Point out the figure. 

129. is always complaining of. Criticise the closing of this sentence. 
129, 130. Yes, indeed. Parse. 


115 

120 

125 

130 



17. GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS, 

1824 -. 

George William Curtis, an American journalist, was 
born at Providence, Rhode Island, February 24, 1824. 
His early education was received in a private school at 
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. At the age of fifteen he 
became clerk in a mercantile house in New York, and 
in 1842 he and his brother became members of the 
Brook Farm Community, where he remained a year 
and a half, dividing his time between study and agri¬ 
cultural labor. The following year and a half were spent 
by the two brothers in the emplo} 7 of a farmer at Con¬ 
cord, Massachusetts, after which they spent six months 
in tilling a piece of ground on their own account. The 
next four years (from 1846 to 1850) Mr. Curtis spent in 
Italy, Berlin, Egypt, and Syria, and on his return to 
America he published his first book, Nile-Notes of a 
Howadji, and soon thereafter joined the editorial staff 
of the New York Tribune. Since that time he has been 
a journalist continuously. He was one of the original 
editors of Putnam's Monthly , which was commenced in 
1852. Curtis has been a constant contributor to Harper’s 
Monthly Magazine since 1853, and to Harper's Weekly , of 
which he has been editor-in-chief since 1857. He has 
written also a number of articles for Harper's Bazar , a 
series of which, entitled Manners upon the Road , appeared 
in weekly installments from 1867 to 1873. 

Mr. Curtis’s second book, The Howadji in Syria , was 
published in 1852. In 1851 he wrote a series of letters 

414 



GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 


415 


from the various watering-places to the Tribune. These 
were afterward published in a volume entitled Lotus- 
Eating. Some of his magazine articles also were col¬ 
lected and published in book-form under the titles The 
Potiphar Papers and Prue and I. He wrote also a novel 
for Harper's Weekly entitled Trumps, which afterward ap¬ 
peared in book-form. 


CRITICISM. 

Mr. Curtis has won an enviable reputation, not only 
as a journalist, but also as a lecturer and public speaker, 
and he has been a constant contributor to the literature 
of the day ever since he chose writing as his profession. 
His eloquence as an orator has made him a favorite be¬ 
fore the societies in colleges and universities. He is 
master of an elegant style, characterized by clear and 
forcible thought, which in his lectures is strengthened 
by an attractive presence and a finely-modulated voice 
that never fail to please a cultured audience and make 
him one of the most polished and popular of platform- 
orators. 

ASPIRATIONS OF YOUTH. 

Day by day, wherever our homes may be in this great 
land, we have watched the passing pageant of the year. 
Day by day, from the first quick flush of April through 
the deeper green and richer bloom of May and June, 
we have seen the advancing season develop and in- 5 
crease, until, at last, among roses and golden grain, the 
year stood perfect in midsummer splendor. As you 
have contemplated the brief glory of our summer, 


Analysis. —1. Day by day. Parse. 
1,2. Is the sentence periodic or loose ? 
3, 7. Make this a loose sentence. 

8. Point out the figure. 



416 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

where the clover almost blooms out of snow-drifts, and 
the red apples drop almost with the white blossoms, 10 
you have perhaps remembered that the flower upon the 
tree was only the ornament of a moment—a brilliant 
part of the process by which the fruit was formed—-and 
that the perfect fruit itself was but the seed-vessel by 
which the race of the tree is continued from year to 15 
year. 

Then have you followed the exquisite analogy that 
youth is the aromatic flower upon the tree; the grave 
life of maturer years, its sober, solid fruit; and the prin¬ 
ciples and character deposited by that life, the seeds by 20 
which the glory of this race also is perpetuated ? 

I know the flower in your hand fades while you look 
at it. The dream that allures you glimmers and is gone. 
But flower and dream, like youth itself, are buds and 
prophecies. For where, without the perfumed blossom- 25 
ing of the spring orchards all over the hills and among 
all the valleys of New England and New York, would 
the happy harvests of New York and New England be? 
And where, without the dreams of the young men light¬ 
ing the future with human possibility, would be the 30 
deeds of the old men, dignifying the past with human 
achievement ? How deeply does it become us to believe 
this, who are not only young ourselves, but living with-- 
the youth of the youngest nation in history! 


Analysis. —9. Criticise the position of almost. 

12. What figure in the line ? 

13. With what is part in apposition? 

18, 19. What figures? 

20. In what case is seeds ? 

23-25. What figures ? 

31. Name the modifiers of deeds. 

32. Name the modifiers of it and us. 

34. Point out the figure. 



GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 417 

I congratulate you that you are young; I congratulate 
you that you are Americans. Like you, that country is 
in its flower, not yet in its fruit; and that flower.is sub¬ 
ject to a thousand chances before the fruit is set. Worms 
may destroy it; frosts may wither it; fires may blight 
it; gusts may whirl it away. But how gorgeously it still 
hangs blossoming in the garden of time, while its pene¬ 
trating perfume floats all round the world and intoxi¬ 
cates all other nations with the hope of liberty ! 

Knowing that the life of every nation, as of each in¬ 
dividual, is a battle, let us remember, also, that the 
battle is to those w r ho fight with faith and undespairing 
devotion. Knowing that nothing is worth fighting for 
at all unless God reigns, let us at least believe as much 
in the goodness of God as we do in the dexterity of the 
devil. And, viewing this prodigious spectacle of our 
country—this hope of humanity, this Young America, 
our America—taking the sun full in its front, and mak¬ 
ing for the future as boldly and blithely as the young 
David for Goliath, let us believe with all our hearts; 
and from that faith shall spring the fact that David, 
and not Goliath, is to win the day, and that out of the 
high-hearted dreams of wise and good men about our 
country, Time, however invisibly and inscrutably, is, 
at this moment, slowly hewing the most colossal and 
resplendent result in history. 

Analysis.— 36-43. What extended figure? 

44. Knowing , etc. What does it modify ? 

44, 45. What figure ? 

46. battle is, etc. Explain. 

47. fighting for. Parse. 

48. Parse at all. 

58. Point out the figure in this line. 


35 

40 

45 

50 

55 

60 


27 



18. N. P. WILLIS, 

1806 - 1867 . 

Nathaniel Parker Willis, an American journalist 
and poet, born in Portland, Maine, January 20, 1806, 
died at Idlewild, his residence, near Newburg, New 
York, on the 21st of January, 1867. 

He was educated at Yale, and while still in college 
published, over the signature of “ Roy,” a number of 
scriptural and other poems. He graduated in 1827, 
and was immediately employed by Samuel G. Goodrich 
(“ Peter Parley ”) to edit the Legendary and the Token. 
A year later he established the American Monthly Maga¬ 
zine , which at the end of two years was merged in the 
New York Mirror , a journal previously established by 
George P. Morris, of which Willis then became associate 
editor. 

Soon after this Willis visited Europe, and while there 
wrote a series of sketches for the Mirror entitled Pendlings 
by the Way , which were afterward published in three 
volumes. He then became an attache of the Ameri¬ 
can minister at Paris, Mr. Rives, and having traveled 
through Europe and through Turkey and some other 
parts of Asia, he returned to England, where he mar¬ 
ried the daughter of General Stace, the commandant at 
the Woolwich Arsenal. 

In 1837 he returned to the United States, and lived 
for two years at Glenmary, near Owego, New York. He 
then became editor of the Corsair, which proved to be a 
short-lived literary gazette. He visited England the 

418 


N. P. WILLIS. 


419 


same year. On returning to New York he and George 
P. Morris established a daily newspaper, the Evening 
Mirror , but the death of Willis’s wife and his own 
failing health led him to make another visit to Europe. 
On his return, in 1846, he married again and located 
near Newburg, naming his residence Idlewild. In this 
same year he and George P. Morris established the 
Home Journal , a weekly paper, to which he was a con¬ 
tributor until the time of his death. 

Of Willis’s poems, The Death of Absalom, Hagar in the 
Wilderness , Jephthah’s Daughter , The Daughter of Jairus , 
and The Belfry Pigeon are among the best. His Letters 
from Under a Bridge , People I have Met , Life Here and 
There , Famous Persons and Places , and A Health-Trip to 
the Tropics are the most highly esteemed of this versatile 
and graceful author’s prose productions. 


CRITICISM BY EYART A. DUYCKINCK. 

The contributions of Mr. Willis to the various periodi¬ 
cals are severally characterized by their acute perception 
of affairs of life and the world; a delicate vein of senti¬ 
ment, an increased ingenuity in the decoration and im¬ 
provement of matters which in the hands of most writers 
would be impertinent and wearisome; in fine, in their 
invention, which makes new things out of old, whether 
among the palled commonplaces of the city or the scant 

monotony of the country.The poetry of Mr. 

Willis is musical and original. His sacred poems belong 
to a class of compositions which critics might object to, 
did not experience show them to be pleasurable and 
profitable interpreters to many minds. The versifica¬ 
tion of these poems is of remarkable smoothness. In¬ 
deed, they have gained the author reputation where his 
nicer powers would have failed to be appreciated. 



420 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

THE BELFRY PIGEON. 

On the cross-beam under the Old South bell 
• The nest of a pigeon is builded well. 

In summer and winter that bird is there, 

Out and in with the morning air. 

I love to see him track the street, 

With his wary eye and active feet; 

And I often watch him as he springs, 

Circling the steeple with easy wings, 

Till across the dial his shade has passed, 

And the belfry edge is gained at last. 

’Tis a bird I love, with its brooding note, 

And the trembling throb in its mottled throat; 

There’s a human look in its swelling breast, 

And the gentle curve of its lowly crest; 

And I often stop with the fear I feel, 

He runs so close to the rapid wheel. 

Whatever is rung on that noisy bell— 

Chime of the hour, or funeral knell— 

The dove in the belfry must hear it well. 

When the tongue swings out to the midnight moon, 
When the sexton cheerily rings for noon, 

When the clock strikes clear at morning light, 

When the child is waked with “ nine at night,” 

When the chimes play soft in the Sabbath air, 

Filling the spirit with tones of prayer,— 

Whatever tale in the bell is heard, 

He broods on his folded feet unstirred, 

Or, rising half in his rounded nest, 

He takes the time to smooth his breast, 

Analysis. —1. To what does Old South refer ? 

4. Dispose of out and in. 

9. Why shade instead of shadow t 
11, 12. Analyze these lines. 

1-16. Name the figures. 

17-19. Analyze the sentence. 

17-31. What is the principal clause? Name the modifying 
clauses. What figures in these lines? 


5 

10 

15 

20 

25 



N. P. WILLIS. 421 

Tlien drops again, with filmed eyes, 

And sleeps as the last vibration dies. 

Sweet bird! I would that I could be 
A hermit in the crowd like thee! 

With wings to fly to wood and glen, 

Thy lot, like mine, is cast with men; 

And daily, with unwilling feet, 

I tread, like thee, the crowded street ; 

But, unlike me, when day is o’er, 

Thou canst dismiss the world and soar; 

Or, at a half-felt wish for rest, 

Canst smooth the feathers on thy breast, 

And drop, forgetful, to thy nest. 

I would that in such wings of gold 
I could my weary heart upfold; 

I would I could look down unmoved 
(Unloving as I am unloved), 

And while the world throngs on beneath, 

Smooth down my cares and calmly breathe; 

And, never sad with others’ sadness, 

And never glad with others’ gladness, 

Listen, unstirred, to knell or chime, 

And, lapped in quiet, bide my time. 


Analysis.—30. Why film'd instead of filmed? 

32, 33. Explain the lines. 

32-42. Name the figures in these lines. 

35. Dispose of like and mine. 

38, 39. unlike me. What does the phrase modify? 

42. What does forgetful modify ? 

43. Name the object of would. 

43-52. Point out the figures in these lines. 

45. What does unmoved modify ? 

46. Explain the line. 

47. Parse the word beneath. 

48. Give the mode of smooth. 

49. 50. Dispose of sad and glad. 

52. lapped in quiet. What does the phrase modify? Give the 
mode of bide. 


30 

35 

40 

45 

50 



19. BAYARD TAYLOR, 

1825 - 1878 . 

Bayard Taylor, a prominent American novelist, 
poet, and traveler, was born in the village of Kennett 
Square, Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of 
January, 1825. At the age of seventeen, having re¬ 
ceived a limited education, he became an apprentice 
in a printing-office in West Chester. While learning 
his trade he spent his leisure time in studying Latin 
and French and in writing verses. These latter he col¬ 
lected and published in 1844 under the title Ximena , 
with the hope of making a reputation for himself which 
would secure him employment as a contributor to some 
leading newspapers while he made a tour of Europe on 
foot. He was successful in his project, as the editors of 
The United States Gazette and The Saturday Evening Post 
advanced him one hundred dollars. In addition to this 
h$ received forty dollars for some verses which he con¬ 
tributed to Graham’s Magazine , and with this amount he 
undertook the journey. 

Taylors first book, Views Afoot , which appeared in 
1846, is, in the main, a description of his European 
journey. After his return to America he edited a paper 
for a year at Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, and then went 
to New York, where he wrote for the Literary World , and 
in 1848 joined the editorial staff of the New York Tri¬ 
bune, soon thereafter becoming part owner of that jour¬ 
nal. Taylor’s literary labors were thereafter confined 
mainly to the Tribune , and many of his volumes on 

422 


BAYARD TAYLOR. 


423 


travel first appeared as contributions to the columns of 
that paper. 

In 1849 he visited California, and returned by way of 
Mexico, the literary result of his visit being the volume 
El Dorado; or, Adventures in the Path of Empire. In 1851 
he set out on an extended tour of the East, and the same 
year he published a third volume of poems, his second 
being Rhymes of Travel, published in 1848. As the re¬ 
sult of Taylor’s second trip abroad, in which he traveled 
fifty thousand miles in less than two years and a half, 
we have A Journey to Central Africa, Ttie Lands of the 
Saracen, A Visit to India , China , and Japan; Northern 
Travels; or, Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Den¬ 
mark, and Lapland ; Travels in Greece and Russia, and At 
Home and Abroad. 

In 1874, Taylor revisited Egypt, and also attended the 
millennial celebration of Iceland. He also published a 
volume this same year entitled Egypt and Iceland. Be¬ 
sides the books named, he has written Byways of Europe 
and a number of other works. 

Among Taylor’s principal poems are Poems of the Orient, 
Poems of Home and Travel, Picture of St. John, The Masque 
of the Gods; Lars, a Pastoral of Norway; Home Pastorals, 
and others. He wrote also several novels: Hannah 
Thurston, John Godfrey's Fortunes, The Story of Kennett, 
and Joseph and His Friend. 

In addition to all this labor he translated a number 
of works from the German, the principal being Goethe’s 
Faust, and also wrote several works of an historical cha¬ 
racter. Some of his books have been translated into 
German, French, and Russian. 

Taylor married a German lady, and in February, 1878, 
he was appointed minister-plenipotentiary to Germany, 
He died at Berlin on the 19th of December of the same 
year. 


424 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


CRITICISM. 

Taylor’s greatest success as an author is to be found 
in his books of travel. The reading public owe much 
to him, not only for the interesting facts which he has 
recorded as the results of his observation, but also for 
the clear and captivating style which he employs in his 
narrative. He had the happy faculty of discriminating 
between the unimportant and uninteresting personal 
details which are to be found as incidents of travel, 
ajid the knowledge of men and countries which is eager¬ 
ly sought for by the reader in search of information. He 
met with great success in his admirable translation of 
Faust , but he will be remembered kindly also for the 
glow of warmth and beauty of coloring in his original 
poems, particularly his Poems of the Orient. 


KILIM ANDJARO. 

[For study and analysis.] 

Hail to thee, monarch of African mountains, 
Remote, inaccessible, silent, and lone— 

Who, from the heart of the tropical fervors, 

Liftest to heaven thine alien snows, 

Feeding for ever the fountains that make thee 
Father of Nile and Creator of Egypt! 

The years of the world are engraved on thy forehead; 
Time’s morning blushed red on thy first fallen snows; 
Yet lost in the wilderness, nameless, unnoted, 

Of man unbeholden, thou wert not till now. 
Knowledge alone is the being of Nature, 

Giving a soul to her manifold features, 

Lighting through paths of the primitive darkness 
The footsteps of Truth and the vision of Song. 
Knowledge has born thee anew to Creation, 

And long-baffled Time at thy baptism rejoices. 


BAYARD TAYLOR. 


425 


Take, then, a name, and be filled with existence, 

Yea, be exultant in sovereign glory, 

While from the hand of the wandering poet 
Drops the first garland of song at thy feet. 

Floating alone, on the flood of thy making, 

Through Africa’s mystery, silence, and fire, 

Lo! in my palm, like the Eastern enchanter, 

I dip from the waters a magical mirror, 

And thou art revealed to my purified vision. 

I see thee, supreme in the midst of thy co-mates, 
Standing alone ’twixt the Earth and the Heavens, 
Heir of the sunset and Herald of Morn. 

Zone above zone, to thy shoulders of granite, 

The climates of Earth are displayed as an index, 
Giving the scope of the Book of Creation. 

There, in the gorges that widen, descending 
From cloud and from cold into summer eternal, 
Gather the threads of the ice-gendered fountains— 
Gather to riotous torrents of crystal, 

And, giving each shelvy recess where they dally 
The blooms of the North and its evergreen turfage, 
Leap to the land of the lion and lotus! 

There, in the wondering airs of the Tropics 
Shivers the Aspen, still dreaming of cold: 

There stretches the Oak, from the loftiest ledges, 

His arms to the far-away land of his brothers, 

And the Pine tree looks down on his rival, the Palm. 

Bathed in the tenderest purple of distance, 

Tinted and shadowed by pencils of air, 

Thy battlements hang o’er the slopes and the forests, 
Seats of the Gods in the limitless ether, 

Looming sublimely aloft and afar 
Above them, like folds of imperial ermine, 

Sparkle the snow-fields that furrow thy forehead— 
Desolate realms, inaccessible, silent, 

Chasms and caverns where Day is a stranger, 

Garners where storeth his treasures the Thunder, 

The Lightning his falchion, his arrows the Hail! 


20 

25 

30 

35 

40 

45 

50 


426 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

Sovereign Mountain, thy "brothers give welcome : 
They, the baptized and crowned of ages, 
Watch-towers of Continents, altars of Earth, 
Welcome thee now to their mighty assembly. 

Mont Blanc, in the roar of his mad avalanches, 
Hails thy accession ; superb Orizaba, 

Belted with beech, and ensandaled with palm ; 
Chimborazo, the lord of the regions of noonday; 
Mingle their sounds in magnificent chorus 
With greeting august from the Pillars of Heaven 
Who, in the urns of the Indian Ganges, 

Filter the snows of their sacred dominions, 
Unmarked with a footprint, unseen but of God. 

Lo, unto each is the seal of his lordship, 

Nor questioned the right that his majesty giveth: 
Each in his awful supremacy forces 
Worship and reverence, wonder and joy. 

Absolute all, yet in dignity varied, 

None-has a claim to the honors of story, 

Or the superior splendors of song, 

Greater than thou, in thy mystery mantled— 

Thou, the sole monarch of African mountains, 
Father of Nile and Creator of Egypt! 


55 

60 

65 

70 

75 




20. DR. J. G. HOLLAND, 

1819 - 1881 . 

Dr. Josiah Gilbert Holland, one of America’s most 
popular writers, was born at Belchertown, Massachusetts, 
July 24, 1819. Haying studied medicine, he practiced 
his profession for several years, and then abandoned it. 
After having edited a literary journal in Springfield, 
Massachusetts, for a short time, he spent one year as 
superintendent of the public schools of Vicksburg, 
Mississippi. He then became associate editor of the - 
Springfield Republican in 1849. Two years later he be¬ 
came also one of the proprietors of the paper, and 
retained connection with it up to 1866. Four years 
after this he became conductor of Scribner's Monthly 
(now the Century ), a position w T hich he retained to the 
time of his death, October 12, 1881. 

Dr. Holland wrote several of his first books under 
the assumed name “Timothy Titcomb.” These were 
Letters to the Young , Gold Foil , Lessons in Life , and Letters 
to the Joneses. His other prose works include History of 
Western Massachusetts , Plain Talks on Familiar Subjects , and 
several novels: The Bay-Path , Miss Gilbert's Career , and 
Arthur Bonnicastle. He also wrote a Life of Abraham 
Lincoln and a volume of lectures. His chief poems are 
Bitter-Sweet, Kathrina , and a volume issued in 1872 en¬ 
titled Marble Prophecy , and Other Poems. 

Dr. Holland was for a number of years a popular 
public lecturer, choosing for his themes topics generally 
of a social or a literary character. 


427 


428 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


CRITICISM BY REY. DR. NOAH PORTER. 

The art of saying plain and much-needed truth in 
such a manner as to hold the attention and interest the 
feelings, of relieving the commonplace from dullness, 
and yet leaving it perfectly simple,—this art is the ad¬ 
miration, if not the envy, of those who do not possess 
it. This art Dr. Holland had in an eminent degree, 
and he used it with a most useful effect. He was not 
ashamed to seem commonplace: his critics might say 
that he could not be anything else. His aim was to be 
useful, and in order to be useful he must be effective; 
and to this end he certainly made abundant use of the 
time-honored maxim, “ Look into thy heart and write.” 
It has been a great blessing to the generation which he 
has served so variously and so well from 1868 to 1881 
that he had so generous and pure a heart into which 
he might look, that he had the courage to express what 
he found there, and that he also possessed the gift of ex¬ 
pressing what he found in a diction so facile and so clear, 
and with illustrations and enforcements that were so 
attractive. 


THE READING OF PERIODICALS. 

[Eor study and analysis.'] 

Note. —The following selection, taken from Holland’s Every-Day 
Topics, illustrates the style of this writer. 

It is lamented by many that the reading of periodi¬ 
cals has become not only universal, but that it absorbs 
all the time of those who read them. It is supposed 
that in consequence of these two facts the quiet and 
thorough study of well-written books—books which 5 
deal with their subjects systematically and exhaustive¬ 
ly—has been forsaken. As a consequence of this fact, 


DR. J. G. HOLLAND. 


429 


it is further supposed that readers only get a superficial 
and desultory knowledge of the things thej r study, and 
that, although their knowledge covers many fields, they 
become nothing better than smatterers in any. 

We think these conclusions are hardly sustained by 
the large array of facts relating to them. We doubt 
whether the market for good books was ever any better 
than it is now. We have no statistics on the subject, 
but our impression is that, through the universal diffu¬ 
sion of periodical literature, and the knowledge of books 
conveyed and advertised by it, the book-trade has been 
rather helped than harmed. It has multiplied readers, 
and excited curiosity and interest touching all literature. 
There are hundreds of good books which would never 
reach the world but for the introduction and commen¬ 
dation of the periodical; and books are purchased now 
more intelligently than they ever were before. The li¬ 
brarians will tell us, too, that they find no falling off in 
their labors; and we doubt whether our scholars would 
be willing to confess that they are less studious than 
formerly. Science was never more active in its inves¬ 
tigations than now; discovery was never pushed more 
efficiently and enthusiastically; and thought and specu¬ 
lation were never more busy concerning all the great 
subjects that affect the race. 

No, the facts do not sustain the conclusions of those 
who decry the periodical; and when we consider how 
legitimately and necessarily it has grown out of the 
changes which progress has introduced, we shall con¬ 
clude that they cannot do so. The daily newspaper, in 
its present splendid estate, is a child of the telegraph 
and the rail-car. As soon as it became possible for a 
man to sit at his breakfast-table and read of all the im¬ 
portant events which took place in the whole world the 
day before, a want was born which only the daily paper 


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430 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


could supply. If a man absorbed in business and prac¬ 
tical affairs has time only to read the intelligence thus 
furnished, and the comments upon it and the discus- 45 
sions growing out of it, of course his reading stops 
there; but what an incalculable advantage in his busi¬ 
ness affairs has this hasty survey given him! If he has 
more time than this, and has a love of science, the pe¬ 
riodical brings to him every week or month the latest 50 
investigations and their results, and enables him to keep 
pace with his time. If the work of the various active 
scientists of the day were only embodied in elaborate 
books, he could never see and could never read one of 
them. In the periodical all the scientific men of the 55 
world meet. They learn there just what each man is 
doing, and are constant inspirers and correctors of each 
other, while all the interested world studies them and 
keeps even-headed with them. A ten-days’ run. from 
Liverpool brings to this country an installment of the 60 
scientific labor of all Europe, and there is no possible 
form in which this can be gathered up and scattered 
except that of the periodical. In truth, we do not 
know of any class of men who would be more disas¬ 
trously affected by a suspension of periodical literature 65 
than those who have particularly decried it—the scholars 
and the scientists. 

Within the last twenty years not only have the means 
of communication been incalculably increased, but the 
domain of knowledge has been very greatly enlarged; 70 
and the fact is patent that periodical literature has been 
developed in the same proportion. It has grown out of 
the new necessities, and must ultimately arrange itself 
by certain laws. At present it is in a degree of confu¬ 
sion ; but at last the daily paper will announce facts; 75 
the scientific journal will describe discoveries and pro¬ 
cesses ; the weekly paper will be the medium of popular 


DR. J. G. HOLLAND. 


431 


discussion; the magazine and review will furnish the 
theatre of the thinker and the literary artist; and the 
book, sifting all—facts, processes, thoughts, and artistic 
fabrics and crystallizations of thought—will record all 
that is worthy of preservation to enter permanently into 
the life and literature of the world. This is the tendency 
at the present time, although the aim may not be intel¬ 
ligent and definite or the end clearly seen. Each class 
of periodicals has its office in evolving from the crude 
facts of the every-day history of politics, religion, morals, 
society, and science those philosophic conclusions and 
artistic creations that make up the solid literature of 
the country; and this office will be better defined as the 
years go by. 

We do not see that it is anything against the maga¬ 
zine that it has become the medium by which books of 
an ephemeral nature find their way to the public. The 
novel, almost universally, makes its first appearance as 
a serial. MacDonald, Collins, Reade, George Eliot, Mrs. 
Stowe, Mrs. Whitney, Trollope—in fact, all the principal 
novelists—send their productions to the public through 
the magazines; and it is certainly better to distribute 
the interest of these through the year than to devour 
them en masse. They come to the public in this way in 
their cheapest form, and find ten readers where in the 
book-form they would find one. They are read, too, as 
serials, mingled with a wider and more valuable range 
of literature, as they always should be read. Anything 
is good which prevents literary condiments from being 
adopted as literary food. 

If the fact still remains that there are multitudes who 
will read absolutely nothing but periodical literature, 
where is the harrti? This is a busy world, and the 
great multitude cannot purchase large libraries. Ten 
or fifteen dollars’ worth of periodicals places every work- 


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432 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


ing family in direct relations with the great sources of 
current intelligence and thought, and illuminates their 
home-life as no other such expenditure can do. The 115 
masses have neither the money to buy books nor the 
leisure to read them. The periodical becomes, then, 
the democratic form of literature. It is the intellectual 
food of the people. It stands in the very front rank of 
the agents of civilization, and in its way, directly and 120 
indirectly, is training up a generation of book-readers. 

It is the pioneer: the book will come later. In the 
mean time, it becomes all those who provide periodicals 
for the people to take note of the fact that their work 
has been proved to be a good one by the growing de- 125 
mand for a higher style of excellence in the materials 
they furnish. The day of trash and padding is past or 
rapidly passing. The popular magazine of to-day is 
such a magazine as the world never saw before, and 
the popular magazine of America is demonstrably better 130 
than any popular magazine in the world. We are nat¬ 
urally more familiar with this class of periodical litera¬ 
ture than any other, and we make the statement without 
qualification or reservation. That it is truly educating 
its readers is proved by the constant demand for its own 135 
improvement. 


21. DONALD G. MITCHELL, 

1822 -. 


Donald Grant Mitchell, a popular American author, 
was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1822. After having 
graduated at Yale College in 1841, he traveled in Europe 
for some time, and then studied law in New York. In 
1847 he began his literary career by publishing Fresh 
Gleanings; or , A New Sheaf from the Old Fields of Continental 
Europe , which appeared under the author’s pseudonym, 
“ Ik Marvel.” While visiting Europe in 1848, he wrote 
The Battle Summer , which appeared the next year. In 
the following year (1850) he issued anonymousty The 
Lorgnette , a satirical work. The Reveries of a Bachelor , by 
Ik Marvel , one of Mitchell’s best works, appeared also in 
1850, and in 1851 his Dream-Life followed. 

In 1850, Mitchell became United States consul at 
Venice, but in 1855 he returned to this country, and 
located on a farm near New Haven, which he named 
Edgewood, and which has been his residence ever since. 
Hearth and Home , a New York weekly, was established 
in 1869, and for several years thereafter Mitchell was 
one of its editors. He has won a reputation also as a 
public lecturer. 

Mitchell’s works, in addition to those before named, 
are— Fudge Doings , My Farm at Edgewood, Wet Days at 
Edgewood , Seven Stories , with Basement and Attic; Doctor 
Johns , Rural Studies , and Pictures at Edgewood. 

28 


433 


434 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

CRITICISM. 

The chief characteristic of Mr. Mitchell’s style is 
grace. His pictures of life in The Reveries of a Bachelor 
are extremely captivating and romantic. All through 
his writings there is a truthfulness to Nature which 
makes one feel that the author must have known some¬ 
thing of the reader’s own life. As an observer he is 
attentive and discriminating; as an adviser, kind and 
hopeful; and as a writer, natural and graceful. His 
books are characterized by a healthy sentiment and a 
delicacy of humor which pervade all of them, and make 
them not only instructive, but also intensely interesting. 
Mitchell’s beauty, grace, and naturalness of style give 
him claim to being one of the most delightful writers of 
the National Period of our literature. 


FIRST AMBITION. 

[For study and analysis.~\ 

Note. —The following extract is taken from Mitchell’s Dream- 
Life. 

I believe that sooner or later there come to every 
man dreams of ambition. They may be covered with 
the sloth of habit or with a pretence of humility; they 
may come only in dim, shadowy visions that feed the 
eye like the glories of an ocean sunrise; but you may 5 
be sure that they will come: even before one is aware 
the bold, adventurous goddess whose name is Ambition, 
and whose dower is Fame, will be toying with the feeble 
heart. And she pushes her ventures with a bold hand; 
she makes timidity strong and weakness valiant. 10 

The way of a man’s heart will be foreshadowed by 
what goodness lies in him, coming from above and from 


DONALD G. MITCHELL. 


435 


around; but a way foreshadowed is not a way made. 
And the making of a man’s way comes only from that 
quickening of resolve which we call Ambition. It is 
the spur that makes man struggle with Destiny; it is 
Heaven’s own incentive to make Purpose great and 
Achievement greater. 

It would be strange if you, in that cloister-life of a 
college, did not sometimes feel a dawning of new re¬ 
solves. They grapple you, indeed, oftener than you 
dare to speak of. Here you dream first of that very 
sweet but very shadowy success called reputation. 

You think of the delight and astonishment it would 
give your mother and father, and, most of all, little 
Nelly, if you were winning such honors as now escape 
you. You measure your capacities by those about you, 
and watch their habit of study; you gaze for a half hour 
together upon some successful man who has won his 
prizes, and wonder by what secret action he has done it. 
And when, in time, you come to be a competitor your¬ 
self, your anxiety is immense. 

You spend hours upon hours at your theme. You 
write and rewrite, and when it is at length complete and 
out of your hands, you are harassed by a thousand 
doubts. At times, as you recall your hours of toil, you 
question if so much has been spent upon any other; 
you feel almost certain of success. You repeat to your¬ 
self some passages of special eloquence at night. You 
fancy the admiration of the professors at meeting with 
such' wonderful performance. You have a slight fear 
that its superior goodness may awaken the suspicion 
that some one out of the college, some superior man, 
may have written it. But this fear dies away. 

The eventful day is a great one in your calendar; you 
hardly sleep the night previous. You tremble as the 
chapel-bell is rung; you profess to be very indifferent; 


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436 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


as the reading and the prayer close you even stoop to 
take up your hat, as if you had entirely overlooked the 
fact that the old president was in the desk for the ex¬ 
press purpose of declaring the successful names. You 
listen dreamily to his tremulous yet fearfully distinct 
enunciation. Your head swims strangely. 

They all pass out with a harsh murmur along the 
aisles and through the doorways. It would be well if 
there were no disappointments in life more terrible than 
this. It is consoling to express very deprecating opin¬ 
ions of the faculty in general, and very contemptuous 
ones of that particular officer who decided upon the merit 
of the prize themes. An evening or t^o at Dalton’s 
room goes still farther toward healing the disappoint¬ 
ment, and—if it must be said—toward moderating the 
heat of your ambition. 

You grow up, however, unfortunately, as the college 
years fly by, into a very exaggerated sense of your own 
capacities. Even the good old, white-haired squire, for 
whom you had once entertained so much respect, seems 
to your crazy classic fancy a very humdrum sort of per¬ 
sonage. Frank, although as noble a fellow as ever sat 
a horse, is yet—you cannot help thinking—very igno¬ 
rant of Euripides; even the English master of Dr. Bid- 
low’s school, you feel sure, would balk at a dozen prob¬ 
lems you could give him. 

You get an exalted idea of that uncertain quality 
which turns the heads of a vast many of your fellows, 
called Genius. An odd notion seems to be inherent in 
the atmosphere of those college-chambers that there is 
a certain faculty of mind—first developed, as would 
seem, in colleges — which accomplishes whatever it 
chooses without any special painstaking. For a time 
you fall yourself into this very unfortunate hallucina¬ 
tion ; you cultivate it, after the usual college fashion, by 


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60 

65 

70 

75 

80 


DONALD G. MITCHELL . 


437 


drinking a vast deal of strong coffee and whisky toddy, 
by writing a little poor verse in the Byronic temper, and 
by studying very late at night with closed blinds. 

It costs you, however, more anxiety and hypocrisy 
than you could possibly have believed. You will learn, 
Clarence, when the autumn has rounded your hopeful 
summer, if not before, that there is no Genius in life 
like the Genius of energy and industry. You will learn 
that all the traditions so current among very young men, 
that certain great characters have wrought their great¬ 
ness by an inspiration, as it were, grow out of a sad 
mistake. 

And you will further find, when you come to measure 
yourself with men, that there are no rivals so formidable 
as those earnest, determined minds which reckon the 
value of every hour, and which achieve eminence by 
persistent application. 

Literary ambition may inflame you at certain periods, 
and a thought of some great names will flash like a 
spark into the mine of your purposes; you dream till 
midnight over books; you set up shadows and chase 
them down—other shadows, and they fly. Dreaming 
will never catch them. Nothing makes the “ scent lie 
■well” in the hunt after distinction but labor. 

And it is a glorious thing, when once you are weary 
of the dissipation and the ennui of your own aimless 
thought, to take up some glowing page of an earnest 
thinker, and read, deep and long, until you feel the 
metal of his thought, tinkling on your brain, and striking 
out from your flinty lethargy flashes of ideas that give 
the mind light and heat. And away you go in the chase 
of what the soul within is creating on the instant, and 
you wonder at the fecundity of what seemed so barren, 
and at the ripeness of what seemed so crude. The glow 
of toil wakes you to the consciousness of your real 


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438 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


capacities; you feel sure that they have taken a new 
step toward final development. In such mood it is that 
one feels grateful to the musty tomes which at other 120 
hours stand like curiosity-making mummies, with no 
warmth and no vitality. Now they grow into the affec¬ 
tions like new-found friends, and gain a hold upon the 
heart and light a fire in the brain that the years and the 
mould cannot cover or quench. 125 


EXTRACT. 

There are those who shudder at the approach of 
autumn, and who feel a light grief stealing over their 
spirits like an October haze as the evening shadows 
-slant sooner and longer over the face of an ending 
August day. 

But is not autumn the manhood of the year ? Is it 
not the ripest of the seasons? Do not proud flowers 
blossom—the golden-rod, the orchis, the dahlia, and 
the bloody cardinal of the swamp-lands? 

The fruits too are golden, hanging heavy from the 
tasked trees; the fields of maize show weeping spindles, 
and broad rustling leaves, and ears half glowing with 
the crowded corn; the September wind whistles over 
their thick-set ranks with whispers of plenty. The* 
staggering stalks of the buckwheat grow red with ripe¬ 
ness, and tip their tops with clustering, tri-cornered 
kernels. 



22". DANIEL WEBSTER, 

1782 - 1852 . 

Daniel Webster, one of America’s greatest states¬ 
men and most eloquent orators, was born in Salisbury 
(now Franklin), New Hampshire, January 18,1782. His 
father was a farmer who had served under Amherst in 
the battle of Ticonderoga, and at the close of the French 
and Indian war had settled in New Hampshire as one 
of the pioneers. 

Webster prepared for college partly at Phillips (Exeter) 
Academy, and partly at the home of the Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Wood of Boscawen. He entered Dartmouth College in 
1797, and graduated in 1801. After leaving college Web¬ 
ster began the study of law, but soon went to Fryeburg, 
Maine, to take charge of the town academy for a year 
at a salary of three hundred and fifty dollars. By act¬ 
ing as assistant in copying deeds for the register of the 
county he managed to increase his salary, and thus not 
only facilitated his studies, but also assisted in his bro¬ 
ther Ezekiel’s education. He completed his legal studies 
under the direction of the Hon. Christopher Gore in 
Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1805. 
He began the practice of his profession at Boscawen, 
and after his father’s death removed to Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire. In 1813 he was elected to Congress, 
and was again elected in 1815. His first speech in Con¬ 
gress was delivered in 1813, on the Berlin and Milan 
Decrees, and it at once attracted the attention not only 
of the House, but also of the whole country. Webster 

439 


440 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


at once became a leader, and was ever so, recognized to 
the time of his death. 

In 1816, Webster removed to Boston, where he soon 
rose to the highest rank as an advocate and orator. For 
seven years he occupied no public position, but in 1823 
he was again elected to the United States House of Rep¬ 
resentatives. Four years later he became a member of 
the national Senate, and was United States Senator from 
Massachusetts up to the year 1841, when he accepted the 
post of Secretary of State in the Cabinet, which position he 
retained for two years under Presidents Harrison and Ty¬ 
ler. In 1845 he was again elected to the Senate, but was 
again called tt) the Department of State by President Fill¬ 
more in 1850, and held the post to the time of his death, 
at his Marshfield home, on the 24th of October, 1852. 

Webster began his career as an orator when yet a boy. 
While still in college, at the age of eighteen, he delivered 
a Fourth-of-July oration at the request of the citizens 
of Hanover. Just before leaving college he delivered a 
funeral oration on the death of one of his classmates 
which has much of the dignity and eloquence of his 
later orations. Among the most notable speeches of 
Webster are his oration at Plymouth in 1820, his ad¬ 
dress at the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill 
Monument in 1825, his eulogy on Adams and Jefferson 
in 1826, and his reply to Senator Hayne of South Caro¬ 
lina in 1829. But these are only a fragment of this great 
statesman’s famous orations. The most complete edition 
of his works was that consisting of six volumes, 8vo, 
published in 1851, the year before his death. 

CRITICISM BY E. A. DUYCKINCK. 

Of his capacities as an orator and writer, of his for¬ 
ensic triumphs and repute, of his literary skill and 
success, much may be said. His speech had strength, 


DANIEL WEBSTER. 


441 


force, and dignity; his composition was clear, rational, 
strengthened by a powerful imagination—in his great 
orations “the lightning of passion running along the iron 
links of argument.” The one lesson which they teach 
the youth of America is self-respect, a manly conscious¬ 
ness of power, expressed simply and directly—to look 
for the substantial qualities of the thing, and utter them 
distinctly as they are felt intensely. This was the sum 
of the art which Webster used in his orations. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE UNION. 

[For study and analysis.'] 

I profess, sir, in my career hitherto to have kept 
steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole 
country and the preservation of our Federal Union. It 
is to that Union"we owe our safety at home and our con¬ 
sideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that 
we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most 
proud of our country. That Union we reached only by 
the discipline of our virtues in the severe school of ad¬ 
versity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered 
finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. 

Under its benign influences these great interests im¬ 
mediately awoke as from the dead, and sprang forth 
with newness of life. Every year of its duration has 
teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; 
and, although our territory has stretched out wider and 
wider, and our population spread farther and farther, 
they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It 
has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, 
and personal happiness. 

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the 
Union to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess 
behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of pre- 


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442 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 

serving liberty when the bonds that unite us together 
shall be broken asunder, I have not accustomed my¬ 
self to hang over the precipice of Disunion to see 
whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth 
of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe 
counselor in the affairs of this, government whose 
thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not 
how the Union should be best preserved, but how tol¬ 
erable might be the condition of the people when it 
shall be broken up and destroyed. 

While the Union lasts we have high, exciting, gratify¬ 
ing prospects spread out before us, for us and our chil¬ 
dren. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. 
God grant that, in my day at least, that curtain may 
not rise! God grant that on my vision never may be 
opened what lies behind! When my eyes shall be 
turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, 
may I not see him shining on the broken and dishon¬ 
ored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States 
dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with 
civil feuds,'or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! 

Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather be¬ 
hold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known 
and honored throughout the earth, still full high ad¬ 
vanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their orig¬ 
inal lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single 
star obscured—bearing for its motto no such miserable 
interrogatory as, What is all this worth ? nor those other 
words of delusion and folly, Liberty first, and Union 
afterward; but everywhere, spread all over in characters 
of living light, blazing on all its ample folds as they float 
over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under 
the whole heavens, that other sentiment dear to every 
true American heart: Liberty and Union, now and for 
ever, one and inseparable ! 


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23. EDWARD EVERETT, 

1794 - 1865 . 

Edward Everett, America’s most polished orator, 
was born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, April 11, 1794. 
He died in Boston, Jan. 15, 1865. 

His early education was received in the public schools 
of Dorchester and Boston, and at the age of thirteen he 
entered Harvard College, where he graduated, four years 
later, at the head of his class. While still an under¬ 
graduate he was the principal contributor to the Har¬ 
vard Lyceum, a magazine conducted by the students. 
In 1812 he was appointed a tutor at Harvard, and at 
the same time he pursued his studies in divinity. In 
the following year, while still a tutor, he became pastor 
of the Brattle Street Church, where he immediately won 
a reputation for his eloquence and power as an orator. 

Everett continued as tutor at Harvard until 1814, when 
he was elected to- the professorship of Greek Literature 
in the same institution. He accepted the position, and 
in the spring of 1815 went to Europe for the purpose 
of further fitting himself for his new duties. He re¬ 
mained abroad until 1819, spending more than two 
years at the University of Gottingen. The remainder 
of the time he spent at Paris and in England, Italy, 
Greece, Austria, and Hungary. On his return in 1819 
he not only assumed the duties of his professorship, but 
also took charge of the North American Review , which 
he conducted till 1824, contributing to it more than fifty 
articles. 


443 


444 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Everett’s fame as an orator was permanently estab¬ 
lished by his address on The Circumstances Favorable to 
the Progress of Literature in America , delivered before the 
Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1824. From tha,t time to 
the time of his death he was recognized as the most 
polished of American orators, his speeches in power 
and purity of diction rivaling those of Demosthenes 
and Cicero. 

His most popular addresses were his historical ora¬ 
tions at Plymouth, Concord, Charleston, Lexington, etc., 
and his eulogies on Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and 
John Quincy Adams. His oration on Washington is 
one of the most eloquent productions in the language. 
It was originally delivered in Boston, February 22,1856, 
but the project of buying Mount Vernon by private sub¬ 
scription having originated, Everett delivered this cele¬ 
brated oration in Richmond, Virginia, March 19, 1856, 
for the benefit of the Mount Vernon fund, and the ad¬ 
dress was repeated in different cities of the Union near¬ 
ly one hundred and fifty times. The proceeds, which 
Mr. Everett generously contributed to the Mount Ver¬ 
non fund, amounted to nearly one hundred thousand 
dollars. 

Everett was not only an orator and an author; he was 
also a statesman of the highest character. In 1824 he 
was elected to the House of Representatives, and re¬ 
mained a member until 1835, when he was for four 
.successive years elected governor of Massachusetts. In 
1839 he was defeated for the same position by one vote. 
In 1841 he was sent as minister to England, where both 
Oxford and Cambridge conferred on him the degree of 
D. C. L. On his return to America, in 1846, he was 
made President of Harvard College, which post he held 
for three years. In 1852, on the death of Webster, Ev¬ 
erett was made Secretary of State, and in the following 


EDWARD EVERETT. 


445 


year he was elected to the United States Senate, but ill- 
health compelled him to resign a year later. He was 
nominated also for the office of Vice-President of the 
United States in 1860, but was defeated. 

His most enduring works are his addresses, which 
were published in 1869 in four volumes, under the title, 
Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions. Besides these, 
Everett wrote The Dirge of Alaric the Visigoth , Santa Croce, 
and other poems. 

CRITICISM BY GEORGE S. HILLARD. 

The variety of Mr. Everett’s life and employments is 
but a type of the versatility of his powers and the wide 

range of his cultivation.His style is rich and 

glowing, but always under the control of sound judg¬ 
ment and good taste. His learning and scholarship 
are never needlessly obtruded: they are woven into the 
web of his discourse, and are not embossed on its sur¬ 
face. He wrote under the inspiration of a generous 
and comprehensive patriotism, and his speeches are 
eminently suited to create and sustain a just and high- 
toned national sentiment. Whatever he did was done 
well; and his brilliant natural powers were, through 
life, trained and aided by those habits of vigorous in¬ 
dustry which are falsely supposed by many to be found 
only in connection with dullness and mediocrity. 


THE MEMORY OF OUR HONORED DEAD. 

[For study and analysis ] 

Note. —The following extract, taken from his eulogy on Daniel 
Webster, admirably illustrates Everett’s style. 

In every succeeding age, and in every country in which 
the fine arts have been cultivated, the respect and affec- 



446 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


tion of survivors have found a pure and rational grati¬ 
fication in the historical portrait and the monumental 
statue of the honored and loved in private life, and 
especially of the great and good who have deserved 
well of their country. Public esteem and confidence 
and private affection, the gratitude of the community, 
and the fond memories of the fireside, have ever sought 
in this way to prolong the sensible existence of their 
beloved and respected objects. What though the dear 
and honored features and person on which, while living, 
we never gazed without tenderness or veneration, have 
been taken from us, something of the loveliness, some¬ 
thing of the majesty, abides in the portrait, the bust, 
and the statue. The heart bereft of the living originals 
turns to them; and, cold and silent as they are, they 
strengthen and animate the cherished recollections of 
the loved, the honored, and the lost. 

The skill of the painter and sculptor, which thus 
comes in aid of the memory and imagination, is, in 
its highest degree, one of the rarest, as it is one of the 
most exquisite, accomplishments within our attainment, 
and in its perfection as seldom witnessed as the perfec¬ 
tion of speech or of music. The plastic hand must be 
moved by the same ethereal instinct as the elqquent lips 
or the recording pen. The number of those who, in the 
language of Michael Angelo, can discern the finished 
statue in the heart of the shapeless block, and bid it 
start into artistic life—who are endowed with the ex¬ 
quisite gift of moulding the rigid bronze or the lifeless 
marble into graceful, majestic, and expressive forms—is 
not greater than the number of those who are able with 
equal majesty, grace, and expressiveness to make the 
spiritual essence, the finest shades of thought and feel¬ 
ing, sensible to the mind through the eye and the ear 
in the mysterious embodiment of the written and the 


5 , 

10 

15 

20 

25 

30 

35 


EDWARD EVERETT. 447 

spoken word. If Athens in her palmiest days had but 
one Pericles, she had also but one Phidias. 

Nor are these beautiful and noble arts, by which the 
face and the form of the departed are preserved to 
us—calling into the highest exercise, as they do, all 
the imitative and idealizing powers of the painter and 
the sculptor—the least instructive of our teachers. The 
portraits and the statues of the honored dead kindle the 
generous ambition of the youthful aspirants to fame. 
Themistocles could not sleep for the trophies in the 
Ceramicus; and when the living Demosthenes had 
ceased to speak, the stony lips remained to rebuke and 
exhort his degenerate countrymen. More than a hun¬ 
dred years have elapsed since the great Newton passed 
away, but from age to age his statue by Roubiliac, in the 
ante-chapel of Trinity College, will give distinctness to 
the conceptions formed of him by hundreds and thou¬ 
sands of ardent youthful spirits, filled with reverence for 
that transcendent intellect which, from the phenomena 
that fall within our limited vision, deduced the imperial 
law by which the Sovereign Mind rules the entire uni¬ 
verse. We can never look on the person of Washing¬ 
ton, but his serene and noble countenance, perpetuated 
by the pencil and the chisel, is familiar to far greater 
multitudes than ever stood in his living presence, and 
will be thus familiar to the latest generation. 

What parent, as he conducts his son to Mount Auburn 
or to Bunker Hill, will not, as he passes before their 
monumental statues, seek to heighten his reverence for 
virtue, for patriotism, for science, for learning, for devo¬ 
tion to the public good, as he bids him contemplate the 
form of that grave and venerable Winthrop who left his 
pleasant home in England to come and found a new re¬ 
public in this untrodden wilderness; of that ardent and 
intrepid Otis who first struck out the spark of American 


40 

45 

50 

55 

60 

65 

70 


448 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


independence; of that noble Adams, its most eloquent 
champion on the floor of Congress; of that martyr, War¬ 
ren, who laid down his life in its defence; of that self- 
taught Bowditch, who, without a guide, threaded the 
starry mazes of the heavens; of that Story, honored at 
home and abroad as one of the brightest luminaries of 
the law, and, by a felicity of which I believe there is no 
other example, admirably portrayed in marble by his 
son ? 

What citizen of Boston, as he accompanies the stranger 
around our streets — guiding him through our busy 
thoroughfares, to our wharves crowded with vessels 
which range every sea and gather the produce of every 
climate, up to the dome of this capitol, which com¬ 
mands as lovely a landscape as can delight the eye or 
gladden the heart—will not, as he palls his attention at 
last to the statues of Franklin and Webster, exclaim, 
“ Boston takes pride in her natural position, she rejoices 
in her beautiful environs, she is grateful for her material 
prosperity; but, richer than the merchandise stored in 
palatial warehouses, greener than the slopes of seagirt 
islets, lovelier than this encircling panorama of land and 
sea, of field and hamlet, of lake and stream, of garden 
and grove, is the memory of her sons, native and adopted 
—the character, services, and fame of those who have 
benefited and adorned their day and generation. Our 
children and the schools at which they are trained, our 
citizens and the services they have rendered,—these are 
our jewels, these our abiding treasures.” 

Yes, your long rows of quarried granite may crumble 
to the' dust; the corn-fields in yonder villages, ripening 
to the sickle, may, like the plains of stricken Lombardy 
a few weeks ago, be kneaded into bloody clods by the 
madding wheels of artillery; this populous city, like 
the old cities of Etruria and Campagna Romagna, may 


75 

80 

85 

90 

95 

100 

105 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 449 

be desolated by the pestilence which walketh in dark¬ 
ness, may decay with the lapse of time, and the busy 
mart, which now rings with the joyous din of trade, 
become as lonely and still as Carthage or Tyre, as Baby¬ 
lon or Nineveh; but the names of the great and good 
shall survive the desolation and the ruin; the memory 
of the wise, the brave, the patriotic, shall never perish. 

Yes, Sparta is a wheat-field; a Bavarian prince holds 
court at the foot of the Acropolis; the traveling virtuoso 
digs for marble in the Roman Forum and beneath the 
ruins of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus; but Lycur- 
gus and Leonidas, and Miltiades and Demosthenes, and 
Cato and Tully, “ still liveand he still lives, and all 
the great and good shall live in the heart of ages while 
marble and bronze shall endure; and when marble and 
bronze have perished they shall “ still live ” in memory 
so long as men shall reverence law and honor patriotism 
and love liberty! 


CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 

POETS. 

Richard H. Dana (1787-1879).—Editor of the North American 
Review. Educated at Harvard. Author of The Buccaneer and 
Poems and Prose Writings. 

John Pierpont (1785-1866).—A clergyman. Educated at Yale. 
Was also a merchant. Wrote Am of Palestine, Passing Away, 
E Pluribus Unum, etc. 

James G. Percival (1795-1856).—A surveyor and eminent 
linguist. Assisted in the preparation of Webster’s Dictionary. 
Author of Clio, three volumes of miscellanies, and the poems 
Prometheus, To Seneca Lake, and others. 

Lydia H. Sigourney (1791-1865).—Called “ the Mrs. Hemans 
of America.’’ Was both a poet and a prose-writer. Author of 
Letters to Young Ladies, Letters to my Pupils, and many other 
works, both prose and poetry. 

29 


110 

115 

120 

125 



450 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Charles Sprague (1791-1875).—Both a poet and a banker. 
Educated at the Franklin School, Boston. Author of an Ode 
on Shakespeare, Curiosity, The Winged Worshipers, etc. 

John Howard Payne (1792-1856).—An actor and dramatist. 
Author of Brutus and other dramas. Wrote “Home, Sweet 
Home.” 

George P. Morris (1801-1864).—A journalist and poet. Ed¬ 
itor of the Home Journal . An excellent writer of songs. Au¬ 
thor of My Mother's Bible, Woodman, Spare that Tree, etc. 

George D. Prentice (1802-1869).—Editor of the Louisville 
Journal. Educated at Brown University. Noted for the wit 
and satire, as well as the power, of his editorials. Author of 
The Flight of Years and many shorter poems. 

Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-).—Both lawyer and poet. 

Educated at Columbia College. Wrote also prose. Author of 
Wild Scenes in the Forest and the Prairie and The Vigil of Faith 
and Other Poems. 

William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870).—Novelist, historian, and 
poet. Practiced law for a time, and then became an editor. Au¬ 
thor of The Partisan, The Yemassee, History of South Carolina, 
Life of Marion, etc.; also Atlantis, Lays of Palmetto, and other 
poems. 

Edgar A. Poe (1811-1849).—A brilliant but erratic genius. 
A native of Baltimore. Author of the poems The Raven, An¬ 
nabel Lee, The Bells, and some weird romances: The Fall of the 
House of Usher, The Gold Bug, The Murders of the Rue Morgue, 
and others. 

Alfred B. Street (1811 - ).—A lawyer at Albany. A de¬ 

scriptive poet. Author of Frontenac, The Gray Forest Eagle, 
and other poems. Wrote also Forest Pictures in the AdirondacJcs 
and other prose works. 

Frances S. Osgood, formerly Miss Locke (1812-1850).— 
Author of A Wreath of Wild Flowers from New England and 
other poems. 

John G. Saxe (1816-1881).—A celebrated humorous poet. 
Educated at Middlebury College. Was a lawyer. Wrote 
many excellent poems. Author of The Briefless Barrister, The 
Proud Miss MacBride, Pyramus and Thisbe, Rhyme on the Rail, 
and many similar poems. 


CON TEMP OR A NEO US WRITERS. 


451 


Mrs. Amelia B. Welby (1819-1852).—A graceful writer upon 
themes in domestic life and natural emotions. Author of Poems 
by Amelia. 

Alice Cary (1820-1871).—One of America’s best female poets. 
Author of Thanksgiving, Pictures of Memory, The Bridal Veil, 
An Order for a Picture, The Poet to the Painter, and other poems, 
together with several prose works: Married and Mated, Clover- 
nook, Pictures of Country Life, etc. 

Thomas Buchanan Read (1822-1872).—Both a poet and an 
artist. Spent much of his life in Italy. Wrote The New Pas¬ 
toral, The Wagoner of the Alleghanies, The House by the Sea, 
Drifting, Sheridan's Ride, etc. 

George H. Boker (1824-).—A lyric and dramatic poet. 

Was United States minister to Turkey and Russia. Wrote 
Calaynos, Anne Boleyn, and other dramas; also, The Ivory- Carver, 
The Black Regiment, The Ballad of Sir John Franklin, and other 
poems. 

John T. Trowbridge (1827-).—A novelist and poet. Very 

popular in both departments of literature. Author of Neighbor 
Jackwood, Lawrence's Adventures, Coupon Bonds, etc. Among his 
most popular poems are The Vagabonds, The Charcoal-Man, and 
Farmer John. 

Paul H. Hayne (1831 -).— An editor and poet. His works 

consist mostly of short poems. Wrote The Temptation of Ve¬ 
nus, a volume entitled Avolio; also, one entitled Legends and 
Lyrics. 

Phoebe Cary (1825-1871).—Sister of Alice Cary. Her style 
was more buoyant than that of her sister. Wrote Poems and 
Parodies ; Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love; Hymns for All Chris¬ 
tians, etc. 

E. C. Stedman (1833 -). —Banker, poet, and critic. Wrote 

The Doorstep, Pan in Wall Street, John Brown of Ossawatomie, 
Alice of Monmouth, and a volume entitled The Victorian Poets, 
etc. 

Mrs. Celia Thaxter (1835-).—An excellent writer of both 

prose and poetry. Author of The Little Sandpiper, The Wreck 
of the Pocahontas, Before Sunrise, The Burgomaster Gull, and 
many other short poems. 

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-).—A lyric poet and nov- 








452 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


elist. Wrote Babie Bell, The Face against the Pane, Friar Jerome's 
Beautiful Boole, and other poems; also, The Story of a Bad Boy, 
Marjory Daw and Other People, and Prudence Palfrey. 

Francis Bret Harte (1839-).—A writer of both poetry 

and prose. A journalist. For a tftne editor of The Overland 
Monthly. Wrote The Heathen Chinee, The Luck of Roaring 
Camp, etc. 

Richard Henry Stoddard (1825-).—A poet and magazine- 

writer. Author of several volumes of poetry and prose. Wrote 
Burial of Lincoln, The Burden of Unrest, On the Town, etc. 

John Hay (1841-—).—Lawyer, editor, and poet. Educated 

at Brown University. Wrote Pike County Ballads, Castilian 
Days, etc. 

Joaquin Miller (Cincinnati^ Heine Miller), (1841-). 

—A writer of extravagant and unnatural poems. Author of 
Songs of the Sierras, The Ship in the Desert, Songs of the Sun- 
Lands, etc. 

Lucy Larcom (-).—An excellent poet. Was a mill- 

hand for a time, then a teacher in both Massachusetts and 
Illinois. Edited Our Young Folks. Author of Similitudes, Breath¬ 
ings of a Better Life, Childhood Songs, Idyl of Work, Roadside 
Poems, etc. 

prose-writers. 

1. Historians and Biographers : 

Jared Sparks (1794-1866).—A biographer. Editor of Ameri¬ 
can Biography, twenty-five volumes, and author of Life of Wash¬ 
ington, Life of Franklin, etc. 

Charles E. A. Gayarre (1805 -).— An historian. Educated 

at New Orleans College. Author of History of Louisiana, Ro¬ 
mance of the History of Louisiana, Spanish Domination in Louis¬ 
iana. 

S. Austin Allibone, LL.D. (1816-).—An American bibli¬ 

ographer. Author of Dictionary of Authors, Poetical Quotations, 
Prose Quotations. 

Jacob Abbott (1803-1880).—A popular author of juvenile 
works. Educated at Bowdoin College. Author of The Rollo 
Books, The Lucy Books, The Franconian Stories; also, a series 
of biographies, including Cyrus the Great, Xerxes, Julius Cae¬ 
sar, etc. 








CONTEMPORA NEO US WRITERS. 


453 


John S. C. Abbott (1805-1877).—A Congregational clergy¬ 
man. Educated at Bowdoin College. Author of History of 
Napoleon Bonaparte ; also, a series of biographies on Josephine, 
Maria Louisa, Louis Philippe, Nicholas, etc. 

James Parton (1822--).—Born in England. A writer of 

great industry. Author of Life of Horace Greeley, Life of Aaron 
Burr, Life of Andrew Jackson, Life of Thomas Jefferson, etc. 

Francis Parkman (1823-).—A brilliant historian. Edu¬ 

cated at Harvard. Author of The Conspiracy of Pontiac, The 
Jesuits in America, The Discovery of the Great West, The Pioneers 
of France in the New World, etc. 

Benson J. Lossing (1813-).—An editor and engraver. 

Author of Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, History of the 
United States, History of the War of 1812, Pictorial History of the 
Civil War, etc. 

Richard Hildreth (1807-1865).—A lawyer and editor. Edu¬ 
cated at Harvard. Author of a History of the United States, six 
volumes. 

John G. Shea, LL.D. (1824 - ). — Author of The Catholic 

Church in the United States, Legendary History of Ireland, etc. 
Also translator and editor of many works. 

2. Writers of Fiction: 

Mrs. Catharine M. Sedgwick (1789-1867).—Author of Hope 
Leslie, Redwood, The Poor Rich Man and the Rich Poor Man, 
and other tales. 

John P. Kennedy (1795-1870).—A lawyer. Secretary of the 
Navy under Fillmore. Became provost of the University of 
Maryland. Author of Quodlibet, Swallow Barn, Horse-Shoe Rob¬ 
inson, Rob of the Bowl, etc. 

Mrs. Lydia Maria Child (1802-).—A popular writer of 

many novels and miscellaneous books. Author of Philothea, 
The Frugal Housewife, The Mother’s Book, Biographies of Good 
Wives, Life of Madame de Stael, Life of Madame Roland, etc. 

Mrs. Emily Judson (1817-1854).—A teacher from the age of 
fourteen to the age of twenty-three. Wrote under the nom-de- 
plume “ Fanny Forester.” Author of Alderbrook, The Kathayan 
Slave, My Two Sisters, etc. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1812-).—Daughter ofBev. Lyman 








454 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Beecher, wife of Prof. Calvin E. Stowe. Her best-known book 
is Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Wrote also Oldtown Folks, Pink and White 
Tyranny, etc. 

John Esten Cooke (1830-).—A Southern novelist and 

biographer. A lawyer by profession. Author of The Virginia 
Comedians, Henry St. John, Surrey of Eagle’s Nest, Hilt to Hilt, 
Hammer and Rapier, etc.; also, biographies of Stonewall Jack- 
son and General Robert E. Lee. 

Edward Everett Hale (1822-).—A Unitarian clergyman. 

Educated at Harvard. Author of The Alan Without a Country , 
If, Yes, and Perhaps, The Ingham Papers, Ten Times One is Ten, 
and many other novels. 

T. S. Arthur (1809 - ).—For many years an editor. Wrote 

Ten Nights in a Bar-room, Sketches of Life and Character, Lights 
and Shadows of Real Life, and many other works of a domestic 
character. 

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882).—Son of R. H. Dana, 
the poet. Educated at Harvard. Author of Two Years before 
the Alast, etc. 

Mrs. Sara J. Lippincott (“ Grace Greenwood”), (1823 -).— 

A graceful writer of sketches. Wrote Greenwood Leaves, Haps 
and Alishaps of a Tour in Europe, Merrie England, History of My 
Pets, a volume of poems, etc. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney (1824-).—Popular both as a nov¬ 

elist and a poet. Author of Mother Goose for Grown Folks, Faith 
Gartney’s Girlhood, A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite’s Life, We 
Girls, etc. 

Miss Louisa M. Alcott (1832-).—A popular writer of 

stories. Author of Hospital Sketches, Little Women, An Old- 
Fashioned Girl, Little Alen, etc. 

Seba Smith (“Major Jack Downing”), (1792-1868).—An 
editor by profession. Wrote many articles in the Yankee 
dialect. Author of Powhattan, Down East, New Elements of 
Geometry, etc. 

Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton (1835-).—Began contrib¬ 

uting to periodicals in her fifteenth year. Wrote This, That, 
and the Other; Juno Clifford, Bed-time Stories, Some Women’s 
Hearts, etc. 

Mrs. Mary V. Terhune (“Marion Harland”), (1835-).— 










CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


455 


An American novelist. Author of Alone, The Hidden Path, Moss 
Side, Miriam, Husks, True as Steel, etc. 

Mrs. Augusta J. Evans Wilson (1835-).—An American 

novelist. Wrote Inez, Beulah, Macaria, St. Elmo, Vashti, In- 
felice, etc. 

Edward Eggleston, D. D. (1837-).—A clergyman and pop¬ 

ular novelist. Wrote The Hoosier Schoolmaster, The End of the 
World, Mystery of Metropolisville, The Circuit-Rider, etc. 

William D. Howells (1837-).—A popular novelist. Be¬ 

came editor of the Atlantic Monthly in 1870. Was consul at 
Venice 1861-65.. Author of Venetian Life, Italian Journeys, 
Their Wedding-Journey, A Chance Acquaintance, etc. ; also, a 
volume of poems. 

Mary Clemmer (1838— ).—One of America’s best news¬ 
paper correspondents. Author of Memorial of Alice and Phoebe 
Cary, His Two Wives, a volume of poems. 

W. T. Adams (“Oliver Optic”), (1822 - ). — A prolific writer 

of novels for young people. Author of The Boat Club, Wood- 
ville, Army and Navy, Young America Abroad, Lake Shore , etc. 

Rev. Edward P. Roe (1838 -).— A popular novelist. Edu¬ 

cated at Williams College. Author of Barriers Burnt Away, 
Opening a Chestnut-Burr, What Can She Do ? From Jest to Earnest; 
also, Play and Profit in my Garden and Success with Small Fruits. 

Henry James, Jr. (1843-).—A popular novelist. Son of a 

Swedenborgian clergyman. Began as a magazine-writer. Author 
of The Europeans, The Americans, Daisy Miller, An International 
Episode; also, Transatlantic Sketches, Fre7ich Poets and Novel¬ 
ists, etc. 

3. Writers on General and Polite Literature: 

George Ticknor (1791-1871).—A distinguished writer on the 
history of literature. Educated at Dartmouth. Longfellow’s 
predecessor as Professor of Literature at Harvard. Wrote the 
History of Spanish Literature, Life of Prescott, etc. 

Samuel G. Goodrich (“Peter Parley”), (1793-1863).—One of 
America’s best-known authors. Wrote more than one hundred 
and seventy volumes, consisting of sketches, histories, travels, 
and poems. 

Hon. George P. Marsh (1801 -).— A lawyer and philologist. 








456 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Educated at Harvard. Author of Lectures 071 the English Lan¬ 
guage , History of the English Language, Man and Nature —all 
works of great value. 

Henry Reed, LL.D. (1808-1854).—Educated at the University 
of Pennsylvania, Became Professor of English Literature in 
the same institution. Author of Lectures on English Literature, 
English History, etc., and editor of Wordsworth’s Works, Arnold’s 
Lectures, etc. 

Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1810-1850).—A brilliant and thought¬ 
ful writer. Was drowned, with her husband, Count d’Ossoli, 
and their child, on her return from Italy. Wrote Summer on 
the Lakes, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, etc. 

H. T. Tuckerman (1813-1871).—A voluminous writer of essays 
and criticisms. Author of Rambles and Reviews, Thoughts on 
the Poets, The Criterion, Maga Papers, Artist Life, and many 
other works. 

Evart A. Duyckink (1816-1878).—A writer on biography and 
history. Author, with his brother George, of Cyclopaedia of 
American Literature and History of the Cvil War. 

H. D. Thoreau (1817-1862).—An eccentric but brilliant writer. 
Educated at Harvard. Wrote Walden; or, Life in the Woods; 
Excursions, Maine Woods, etc. 

James T. Fields (1817-1881). — A bookseller and author. 
Editor of the- Atlantic Monthly for eight years. Author of 
Yesterdays with Authors. 

E. P. Whipple (1819 - ). — A lecturer and writer on criti¬ 

cism. His chief works are six volumes of orations, reviews, 
and essays. 

Richard Grant White (1822-).—A Shakespearian scholar 

and critic. Educated at the University of New York. Wrote 
the Life of Shakespeare, Words and their Uses, Every-Day Eng¬ 
lish. Also edited an edition of Shakespeare. 

T. W. Higginson (1823-).—A brilliant essayist. Educated 

at Harvard. Wrote Malbone: an Oldport Romance; Army Life 
in a Black Regiment, Atlantic Essays, Outdoor Papers, Young 
Folks ’ History of the United States, etc. 

Fred Cozzens (1818-1869).—A popular magazine-writer. Was 
a wine-merchant. Author of The Sparrowgrass Papers, The Wine- 
Press, etc. 





CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


457 


W. D. Whitney, LL.D. (1827 -). —A celebrated Oriental 

scholar. Educated at Williams College. Wrote Language and 
the Science of Language. Is a professor in Yale College. 

Mary A. Dodge (“Gail Hamilton”), (1838-).—A writer 

of sketches. Author of A New Atmosphere, Gala Lays, Country 
Living, etc. 

Alexander H. Everett (1792-1847). — Brother of Edward 
Everett. Educated at Harvard. Graduated when only fifteen. 
Studied law with John Q. Adams. Wrote Europe, State of 
America, etc. 

Fanny Fern (1811-1872). — Wife of James Parton and sister 
of N. P. Willis. A witty writer of sketches and tales. Author 
of Fern-Leaves, Little Ferns, Hits at Folly as it Flies; also, the 
novels Ruth Hall and Rose Clark. 

Rufus W. Griswold, D. D. (1815-1857). — A Baptist clergyman; 
also an editor. Wrote The Poets and Poetry of America, The 
Prose- Writers of America, Female Poets of America, Washington 
and the Generals of the Revolution. 

Benjamin F. Taylor (1822-).—Son of President Taylor 

of Madison University, N. Y. Wrote Attractions of Language, 
January and June, Songs of Yesterday, In Camp and Field, etc. 
Author also of some poems. Editor for many years of the 
Chicago Evening Journal. 

Charles Dudley Warner (1829-).—A genial and witty 

writer. Educated at Hamilton College. Wrote My Summer in 
a Garden, Back-log Studies ; Baddeck, and that Sort of Thing ; My 
Winter on the Nile, Being a Boy, etc. 

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844-).—A writer on social 

topics and sketches. Author of Gates Ajar, Hedged In; Men, 
Women, and Ghosts; The Silent Partner, etc. 

4. Essayists: 

Henry C. Carey (1793-1879). — A writer on political economy; 
also a publisher. Author of Principles of Political Economy ; The 
Past, the Present, and the Future, and other works, including 
many pamphlets. 

Francis Wayland (1796-1865). — President of Brown Univer¬ 
sity. Educated at Union College. Author of Elements of Moral 
Science, Political Economy, Treatise on Intellectual Philosophy, etc. 







458 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


Horace Mann (1796-1859).—A writer on education. Author 
of Lectures on Education ; Report of an Educational Tour in Ger¬ 
many, Great Britain, etc. ; A Few Thoughts for a Young Man on 
Entering Life, etc. 

Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864).—A prominent scientist. Edu¬ 
cated at Yale. Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geol¬ 
ogy. Wrote Journal of Travels in England, Holland, etc.; Ele¬ 
ments of Chemistry, and other works. 

Orestes A. Brownson (1800-1876).—A brilliant religious wri¬ 
ter, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Universalist, Unitarian, 
and Catholic in turn. Author of Charles Elwood; or, The In¬ 
fidel Converted; Liberalism and the Church, The Covenant, etc. 

Theodore D. Woolsey, D. D., LL.D. (1801-).—President 

of Yale College from 1846 to 1871. Educated at Yale. Wrote 
an Introduction to the Study of International Law and The Relig¬ 
ion of the Present and the Future. 

Tayler Lewis (1802-1877).—A brilliant and versatile scholar. 
Educated at Union College. Began life as a lawyer, and then 
became a professor in the University of the City of New York. 
Wrote The Nature and Ground of Punishment, The Six Days of 
Creation, etc. 

Matthew F. Maury (1806-1873).—A noted scientific writer. 
Wrote Physical Geography of the Sea and a number of magazine 
articles. 

Louis J. R. Agassiz (1807-1873).—An American naturalist. 
Born in Switzerland. Came to America in 1847. Became a 
professor in Harvard College. Author of History of the Fresh- 
Water Fishes, Methods of Study in Natural History, A Journey in 
Brazil , etc. 

0. M. Mitchel (1810-1862).—An American astronomer. Ed¬ 
ucated at West Point. Became a lawyer. Wrote Planetary 
and Stellar Worlds, A Popular Astronomy, etc. 

Theodore Parker (1810-1860).—A clergyman. Author of 
Historic Americans, Selections from the World of Mind -and Mat¬ 
ter ; Sermons on Theism, Atheism, and Popular Theology; also 
many critical and miscellaneous writings. 

Horace Greeley (1811-1872).—A great journalist and reform¬ 
er. Founded the New York Tribune. Author of The American 
Conflict, Recollections of a Busy Life, What I Know about Farming. 



CONTEMPORANEO US WRITERS. 


459 


Dr. John W. Draper (1811-1882).—A learned scientific writer. 
Born in England. Author of treatises on The Organization of 
Plants, Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Human Physiology; also, 
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, History of the 
American Civil War, etc. 

Helen Hunt (1831-).—Daughter of Professor Nathan 

Fiske of Amherst College. Wrote under the nom-de-plume 
“ H. H.” Author of Bits of Travel and a volume of poems. 

T. DeWitt Talmage (1832 - ).—An American clergyman 

and popular lecturer. Educated at the University of New 
York. Author of The Almond Tree in Blossom, Crumbs Swept 
Up, Around the Tea-Table, Old Wells Dug Out 

Theodore Tilton (1835-).—A brilliant lecturer. Edu¬ 

cated at Yale College.' Edited The Independent, also The Golden 
Age. Author of a number of poems and essays. 

5. Orators: 

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848).—Sixth President of the 
United States. Son of President John Adams. Educated at 
Harvard. His reputation as an orator is based mostly on his 
speeches in Congress. 

Henry Clay (1777-1852).—Known as the “ Mill-boy of the 
Slashes.” Became United States Senator from Kentucky. 
Was Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams. His rep¬ 
utation rests on his powers as a debater in the Senate. 

John C. Calhoun (1782-1850).—Educated at Yale College. 
Was United States Senator from South Carolina, and Secretary 
of State under President Monroe. Was also Vice-President of 
the United States. Noted for his speeches while in the Senate. 
Was an ardent advocate of the doctrine of “State Eights.” 

Lewis Cass (1782-1866).—A member of the United States 
Senate, and Secretary of War under President Jackson. Was 
also minister to France. Author of France, its King, Court, and 
Government. 

Rufus Choate (1799-1859).—An eminent lawyer. Educated 
at Dartmouth College. Was for a time United States Senator. 
He was a brilliant orator, though his sentences have been much 
criticised on account of their many clauses and great length. 

W. H. Seward (1801-1872).—A distinguished lawyer and 





460 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE 1 


statesman. United States Senator from New York, and Sec¬ 
retary of State under President Lincoln. Author of Life of 
John Quincy Adams, Life of De Witt Clinton, and many orations 
in the United States Senate. 

Charles Sumner (1801-1873).—An eminent lawyer and states¬ 
man. Educated at Harvard. United States Senator from Mas¬ 
sachusetts. Author of The True Grandeur of Nations, The Bar¬ 
barism of Slavery , and many other orations. 

Wendell Phillips (1811-).—One of America's greatest 

orators. Educated at Harvard. A lawyer by profession. 
Widely known as a popular lecturer. 

Alexander H. Stephens (1812-).—A distinguished states¬ 

man and political writer. Educated at Franklin College, Geor¬ 
gia. Wrote a Compendium of the History of the United States, 
The Reviewers Reviewed, etc. 

6. Theological Writers: 

Charles Hodge, D. D., LL.D. (1797-1878).—An American 
theologian. Educated at Princeton. Author of The Way of 
Life, Systematic Theology, What is Darwinism ? Essays and Re¬ 
views, etc. 

Charles P. Mcllvaine, D.D., LL.D., D. C. L. (1798-1873).— 
Educated at Princeton. Protestant Episcopal bishop of Ohio. 
Author of Evidences of Christianity, etc. 

John Hughes, D. D. (1797-1864).—American archbishop. Born 
in Ireland. Became widely known through his controversies 
with Dr. Breckenridge and Erastus Brooks. 

Rev. Albert Barnes (1798-1870).—Educated at Hamilton Col¬ 
lege. Author of a series of Biblical Commentaries, Practical 
Sermons for Vacant Congregations and Families, etc. 

Horace Bushnell, D. D. (1804-1876).—A Congregational cler¬ 
gyman and lecturer. Educated at Yale College. Author of 
Christian Nurture, Sermons for the New Life, Nature and the Su¬ 
pernatural, Work and Play, The Vicarious Sacrifice, and other 
works. 

George W. Bethune (1805—1862).—Celebrated as a clergyman 
and poet. Author of Early Lost, Early Saved; The History of a 
Penitent, etc.; also, Lays of Love and Faith, and other Poems , and 
a volume of Orations and Occasional Discourses . 



CONTEMPORANEOUS WRITERS. 


461 


Richard L. Storrs, D. D. (1821-).—Educated at Amherst 

College. Author of Graham Lectures on the Wisdom, Power, and 
Goodness of God, etc., and many other addresses and lectures. 

George B. Cheever (1807-).—A clerical writer of note. 

Educated at Bowdoin. Author of Studies in Poetry, God’s Hand 
in America, The Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. 

Martin J. Spalding (1810-1872).—Late archbishop of Balti¬ 
more. Author of Evidences of Catholicity, A Review of D’Au- 
bign&s History of the Reformation, Smithsonian Lectures on Modern 
Civilization, etc. 

James McCosh, D. D., LL.D. (1811-).—An eminent meta¬ 

physician. Born in Scotland. Came to America in 1868. Pres¬ 
ident of the College of New Jersey at Princeton. Author of 
Methods of Divine Government, Logic, The Intuitions of the Mind, 
Christianity and Positivism, etc. 

Noah Porter (1811-).—An eminent metaphysician. Edu¬ 

cated at Yale College. Became President of Yale in 1871. Au¬ 
thor of Books and Reading, The American Colleges and the Amer¬ 
ican Public, Elements of Intellectual Science, and other works. 

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-).—A popular preacher and 

lecturer. Educated at Amherst College. Has also done much 
editorial work. Author of The Star Papers, Lectures to Young 
Men, Life Thoughts, Life of Christ; Norwood: a Novel, and many 
volumes of sermons and lectures. 

Thomas Starr King (1824-1864).—A brilliant Universalist 
minister, also a popular lecturer. Wrote The White Hills, their 
Legends, Landscapes, and Poetry. 

E. H. Chapin, D. D. (1814 - ).—A Universalist clergyman. 

His literary reputation rests mainly on his public lectures 
and pulpit oratory. Author of Hours of Communion, A Token 
for the Sorrowing, Moral Aspects of City Life, Humanity in the 
City, etc. 

John McClintock, D. D., LL.D. (1814-1870).—An eminent 
Methodist clergyman. President of Drew Theological Semi¬ 
nary. One of the authors of Strong and McClintock’s Theologi¬ 
cal and Biblical Cyclopaedia. 

Philip Schaff, D. D. (1819-).—A theologian and Church 

historian. Born in Switzerland. Educated at Tubingen, Halle, 
and Berlin. Came to America in 1844. Wrote the History of 









462 STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. 


the Apostolic Church , Vindication of the Idea of Historical De¬ 
velopment, Ancient Church History, History of the Creeds of Chris¬ 
tendom, etc. 

Charles P. Krauth, D. D. (1823 -).— An American theolo¬ 

gian. Educated at Pennsylvania College. Professor in the 
University of Pennsylvania. His chief work is The Conserva¬ 
tive Reformation and its Theology . 

7. Humorous Writers: 

Charles Farrar Browne (“ Artemus Ward ”), (1836-1867).— 
One of the best of American humorists. An editor by pro¬ 
fession. Author of Artemus Ward his Book, Artemus Ward 
among the Fenians, Artemus Ward among the Mormons, etc. 

B. P. Shillaber (“Mrs. Partington”), (1814 -).— Wrote 

Life and Sayings of Airs. Partington, Knitting- Work, etc. 

H. W. Shaw (“Josh Billings”), (1818-).—Wrote Sayings 

of Josh Billings, Josh Billings on Ice, Farmers' Almanax, etc. 
Known also as a lecturer. 

Samuel L. Clemens (“Mark Twain ”), (1835-)—A distin¬ 

guished American humorist. An editor by profession. Wrote 
Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, Tom Sawyer, The Gilded Age 
(jointly with Charles Dudley Warner), etc. Known also as a 
humorous lecturer. 

Most of the other prominent humorists are given below, with 
their pseudonyms: 

Charles G. Leland, “Hans Breitmann.” 

C. H. Webb, “John Paul.” 

James M. Bailey, “ Danbury News Man.” 

D. R. Locke, “Petroleum V. Nasby.” 

Melville D. Landon, “Eli Perkins.” 

R. H. Newell, “Orpheus C. Kerr” (office-seeker). 

Robert J. Burdette, “ Burlington Hawkeye Man.” 

Samuel W. Small, “ Old Si.” 







INDEX 


Note.—T he following table indicates the abbreviations used in the Index: 


Biog., 

Biography. - 


Or., Oratory. 


Crit., 

Criticism. 


Phil., Philology. 


Dram., 

Drama. 

• 

Philos., Philosophy. 


Ed., 

Education. 


Pol. Politics. 


Ess., 

Essays. 


Pol. Econ., Political Economy. 

Fie., 

Fiction. 


Poet., Poetry. 


Hist., 

History. 


Bel., Religion. 


Hum., 

Humorous. 


Sci., Science. 


Jour., 

Journalism. 


Theol., Theology. 


1[eta., 

Metaphysics. 


Trav., Travels. 


His., 

Miscellaneous. 





ENGLISH 

AUTHORS. 



PAGE 

PAGE 

Addison, Joseph, Ess. and Poet .... 

88 

Boswell, James. Biog . 

171 

Ainsworth, William H., Fie . 

289 

Braddon, Marv E., Fic . 

291 

Akenside. Mark, Poet. . 

105 

Brewster, Sir D., Sci. 

292 

Alford, Henry, 

Poet . 

294 

Bronte, Charlotte, Fic . 

2S9 

Alison, Sir A., Hist, and Pol . 

287 

Brougham, Henrv, Mis . 

213 

Arnold, Matthew, Hist, and Pol... 

292 

Browne, Sir Thomas, Theol . 

75 

Arnold, Thomas, Hist . 

287 

Browning, Elizabeth B., Poet., Ess. 223 

Aseham, Roger, Ed . 

59 

Browning, Robert. Poet, and Dram. 

285 

Austen, Jane, Fic . 

211 

Buchanan, Robert, Poet . 

2S6 

Aytoun, William E., Poet and Biog. 

286 

Buckle, H. T., Philos, and Pol . 

293 




Bunvan. John. Bel . 

87 

Bacon, Francis 

, Philos. and Ess ... 

47 

Burke, Edmund, Pol. and Ess . 

170 

Baillie, Joanna, Dram . 

210 

Burney, Frances Countess d’Ar- 


Baker. Samuel W., Trav . 

295 

blay>, Fic. and Biog. 

211 

Barbour, John, 

Poet . 

25 

Bums, Robert. Poet . 

156 

Barrow, Isaac, Sci. and Bel . 

75 

Burton, Richard Francis, Trav... 

295 

Baxter, Richard, Theol . 

75 

Burton, Robert. Ess . 

59 

Beattie, James, Poet, and Ess . 

169 

Butler, Samuel, Poet . 

87 

Beaumont, Fr., 

Poet, and Dram... 

58 

Bvron, Lord, Poet . 

172 


Bentham, Jeremy, Pol . 213 

Berkeley, George, Poet, and Theol. 106 Campbell, Thos., Poet, and Biog.. 209 

Blackstone, Sir William, Laiv . 171 Carlyle, Thomas, Ess. and Biog... 267 

463 




































464 


INDEX. 


PAGE 


Chalmers, Thomas, Theol . 213 

Chatterton, Thomas, Poet . 169 

Chaucer, Geoffrey, Poet . 19 

Clarke, Adam, Theol . 213 

Cobbett, William, Pol. and Ess _ 211 

Coleridge, S. T., Poet, and Mis . 189 

Collins, William, Poet . 105 

Collins, Wm. Wilkie, Fic . 290 

Cowley, Abraham, Poet . 74 

Cowper, William, Poet . 147 

Crabbe, George, Poet . 209 

Craik, Maria D. M., Fic . 290 

Daniel, Samuel, Poet, and Hist. .. 59 

Darwin, Charles, Sci . 293 

Davy, Sir H., Sci . 213 

De Foe, Daniel, Fic. and Poet . 106 

DeQuincey, Thomas, Fic. and Ess. 212 

Dickens, Charles, Fic . 243 

Disraeli, Benjamin, Fic. and Pol. . 289 

Disraeli, Isaac, Biog. and Fic . 212 

Dixon, W. H., Hist . 288 

Dobell, Sydney, Poet . 286 

Doddridge, Philip, Theol . 170 

Drayton, Michael, Poet, and Fic. . 59 

Dryden, John, Poet, and Dram. ... 76 

Edgeworth, Maria, Fic . 211 

Eliot, George, Fic . 262 

Ellis, Mrs. Sarah, Fic . 291 

Evelyn, John, Poet . 87 

Faraday, Michael, Sci . 292 

Fielding, Henry, Fic . 170 

Fletcher, John, Poet, and Dram. .. 58 

Ford, John, Poet . 59 

Forster, John, Hist . 288 

Freeman, E. A., Hist, and Pol . 288 

Froude, James A., Hist, and Fic. . 278 
Fuller, Thomas, Hist, and Eel . 74 

Galt, John, Fic. and Dram . 211 

Gay, John, Poet . 105 

Geikie, Archibald, Sci . 293 

Gibbon, Edward, Hist . 169 

Gladstone, William E., Mis . 292 

Goldsmith, Oliver, Poet, and Fic. . 128 

Gower, John, Poet . 25 

Gray, Thomas, Poet . 107. 

Grote, George, Hist . 287 


PAGE 


Green, J. R., Hist . 288 

Griffin, Gerald, Fic . 291 

Hall, Robert, Theol . 213 

Hallam, H., Hist . 210 

Hamilton, Sir William, Meta . 292 

Hazlitt, William, Crit. and Pol _ 211 

Heber, Reginald, Poet . 209 

Helps, Sir Arthur, Mis . 291 

Hemans, Mrs. F., Poet . 209 

Herbert, George, Poet . 59 

Herrick, Robert, Poet . 74 

Herschel, Sir John, Sci . 213 

Hobbes, Thomas, Pol . 74 

Hogg, James, Poet . 209 

Hood, Thomas, Poet . 210 

Hooker, Richard, Eel . 59 

Howitt, William, Fic. and Mis _ 291 

Hughes, Thomas, Fic. and Mis _ 289 

Hume, David, Hist . 169 

Hunt, Leigh, Poet, and Mis . 212 

Huxley, Thomas H., Sci . 293 

Hyde, Edward, Hist, and Biog.... 75 

Ingelow, Jean, Poet, and Fic . 229 

James, G. P. R., Fic. and Hist . 288 

Jameson, Anna, Art and Mis . 291 

Jerrold, Douglas, Dram, and Fic.. 286 
Johnson, Sam .,Fic.,Poet., and Biog. 118 

Jonson, Ben, Dram . 58 

“ Junius,” Pol . 171 

Keats, John, Poet . 210 

Kingsley, Charles, Fic . 289 

Knight, Charles, Hist . 288 

Knowles, James Sheridan, Dram. 210 

Lamb, Charles, Ess. and Mis . 212 

Landor, Walter S., Poet, and Mis.. 212 

Langland, Robert, Poet . 25 

Layard, A. H., Trav . 295 

Lever, Charles J., Fic . 289 

Lewes, George H., Bjog. and Hist. 287 

Lingard, John, Hist- . 210 

Livingstone, Dr. D., Trav . 295 

Locke, John, Ess. and Pol . 87 

Lockhart, J. G., Biog . 212 

Lockyer, J. Norman, Sci . 293 

Lover, Samuel, Fic . 289 












































































INDEX. 


465 


PAGE 


Lyell, Sir Charles, Sci. and Trav.. 292 
Lytton, Sir E. Bulwer, Fic., Dram. 288 

Macaulay, T. B., Hist, and Ess... 235 

Macdonald, George, Fic. 290 

Macpherson, James, Poet . 169 

Mackay, Charles, Poet, and His... 285 
Mackintosh, Sir Jas., Pol. aiid Hist. 212 

Mandeville, Sir John, Trav . 25 

Marlowe, Christopher, Dram . 58 

Marryat, Frederick, Fic . 211 

Martineau, Harriet, Fic. and Mis. 291 

Massey, Gerald, Poet . 285 

Massinger, Philip, Dram . 59 

Meredith, Owen, Poet . 285 

Mill, J. S., Pol. and Pol. Econ . 292 

Miller, Hugh, Sci . 293 

Milman, H. H., Hist, and Poet _ 287 

Milton, John, Poet, and Pol . 60 

Mitford, Mary R., Fic. and Poet... 211 

Montagu, Lady Mary W., Mis . 106 

Montgomery, James, Poet . 209 

Moore, Thomas, Poet, and Fic . 196 

More, Hannah, Dram, and Fic _ 170 

Morris, William, Poet . 285 

Muller, Max, Mis . 292 

Murchison, R. I., Sci . 292 

Newman, John H., Theol . 294 

Newton, Sir Isaac, Sci . 106 

Norton, Mrs. C. E. S., Poet, and Mis. 285 

Oliphant, Mrs., Fic . 290 

Opie, Mrs. Amelia, Fic . 211 

Paley, William, Theol. and Meta. 170 

Palgrave, Sir F., Hist . 287 

Pepys, Samuel, Mis . 75 

Pollok, Robert, Poet . 210 

Pope, Alexander, Poet . 98 

Prior, Matthew, Poet . 105 

Procter, Adelaide A., Poet. * . 285 

Procter, Bryan W. (“ Barry Corn¬ 
wall ”), Poet. 210 
Proctor, Richard A., Sci . 293 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, Hist., Poet ... 59 

Ramsay, Allan, Poet . 105 

Reade, Charles, Fic . 290 

Reid, Capt. Mayne, Fic . 290 

30 


PAGE , 


Reid, Thomas, Meta . 170 

Richardson, Samuel, Fic . 169 

Robertson, F. W., Pel . 294 

Robertson, Wm., Hist, and Biog .. 169 

Rogers, Samuel, Poet .;_ 209 

Ruskin, John, Art . 291 

Russell, W. H., Trav. and Mis . 288 

Sackville, Thomas, Poet .. 59 

Sala, George A., Fic. and Trav . 291 

Scott, Sir Walter, Fic. and Poet _ 181 

Shakespeare, Wm., Dram, and Poet. 34 

Shelley, Percy B., Poet . 209 

Sheridan, R. B., Dram . 171 

Sidney, Algernon, Pol . 75 

Sidney, Sir Philip, Fic. and Poet.. 59 

Smith, Adam, Pol. Econ . 171 

Smith, Sidney, Pol. and Ess . 212 

Smollett, T. B., Fic . 170 

Somerville, Mary, Sci . 292 

Southey, Robert, Poet . 212 

Southwell, Robert, Poet . 59 

Spencer, Herbert, Sci . 293 

Spenser, Edmund, Poet . 28 

Spurgeon, C. H., Mis . 294 

Stanley, Arthur P. (Dean), Theol.. 294 

Steele, Richard, Ess . 106 

Sterne, Laurence, Fic . 170 

Stewart, Dugald, Meta . 213 

Strickland, Agnes, Biog. and Fic.. 288 

Suckling, Sir John, Poet . 74 

Swinburne, A. C., Poet . 286 

Swift, Jonathan, Fic. and Poet _ 106 

Talfoubd, T. N., Dram . 286 

Taylor, Henry, Dram, and Poet _ 286 

-Taylor, Isaac, Eel . 294 

Taylor, Jeremy, Eel . 74 

Taylor, Tom, Dram, and Fic . 287 

Temple, Sir Wm., Hist, and Mis... 87 

Tennyson, Alfred, Poet . 215 

Thackeray, W. M., Fic. and Mis... 252 

Thirlwall, Connop, Hist . 287 

Thomson, James, Poet . 105 

Tooke, Horne, Phil . 213 

Trench, R. C. (Dean), Theol., Phil. 294 

Trollope, Anthony, Fic . 290 

Trollope, Frances, Fic . 211 

Tupper, M. F., Poet . 286 

Tyndall, John, Sci . 293 








































































466 


INDEX. 


PAGE 


W aller , Edmund, Poet...'.... _ 74 

Walpole, Horace, Mis . 171 

Walton, Izaak, Mis. and Biog . 74 

Warren, Samuel. Fic . 289 

Wesley, John, Rel . 170 

Whately, Richard, Theol . 294 

Whewell, William, Sci . 292 

White, H. K., Poet . 209 


AMERICAN 


Abbott, Jacob, Biog . 452 

Abbott, J. S. C., Biog. and Fic . 453 

Adams, John, Pol . 314 

Adams, John Q., Pol . 459 

Adams, W. T. (“Oliver Optic ”),Fic. 455 

Agassiz, Louis J. R., Sci . 458 

Alcott, L. M., Fic . 454 

Aldrich, T. B., Poet, and Fic . 451 

Alexander, Archibald, Theol . 315 

Allibone, S. A., Biog . 452 

Allston, AVash., Ess. and Poet . 315 

Arthur, T. S., Fic . 454 

Audubon, J. J., Sci . 315 

Bailey, Jas. M. (“Danbury News 

Man ”), Hum. 462 

Bancroft, George, Hist . 344 

Barnes, Albert, Bel . 4G0 

Beecher, H. W.,j Rel. and Fic . 461 

Bethune, George W., Bel. and Poet. 460 
Boker, George H., Dram, and Poet. 451 

Brackenridge, H. H., Theol . 314 

Bradstreet, Anne, Poet . 301 

Brownson, Orestes A., Fic., Theol.. 458 

Brooks, Mrs. Maria, Poet .314 

Brown, Charles B., Fic . 315 

Browne, C. F. (“Artemus Ward”; 

Hum. 462 

Bryant, W. C., Poet . 317 

Burdette, Robert J. (“ Burlington 

Hawkeye Man ”), Hum. 162 
Bushnell, Horace, Bel . 4; 0 

Calhoun, J. C., Pol . 459 

Carey, H. C., Pol. Econ . 457 

Cary, Alice, Poet . 451 


PAGE 

Wilson, John (“ Christopher 

North”), Mis. and Poet. 212 


Wiseman, N., Theol. and Mis . 294 

Wordsworth, William, Poet . 201 

Wycliffe, John, Bel . 25 

Yates, E. H., Fic . 290 

Young, Edward, Poet . 105 


AUTHORS. 


Cary, Phoebe, Poet . 451 

Cass, Lewis, Pol . 459 

Channing, William E., Theol . 366 

Chapin, E. H., Bel. and Mis . 461 

Cheever, George B., Bel .. 461 

Child, L. Maria, Fic. and Biog _ 453 

Choate, Rufus, Pol. and Ess . 459 

Clay, Henry, Pol . 459 

Clemens, S. L. (“ Mark Twain ”), 

Hum. 462 

Clemmer, Mary, Mis . 455 

Cooke, John E., Fic . 454 

Cooper, J. Fenimore, Fic . 397 

Cozzens, Fred. S., Fic. and Mis _ 456 

Curtis, George W., Ess. and Jour.. 414 

Dana, R. H., Poet, and Fic . 449 

Dana, R. H , Jr., Fic . 454 

Dodge, Mary A. (“Gail Hamil¬ 
ton ”), Ess. 457 

Drake, J. Rodman, Poet . 302 

Draper, J. W., Sci . 459 

Duyckinck, E. A., Biog. and Hist. 456 
Dwight, Timothy, Theol . 314 

Edwards, Jonathan, Meta . 298 

Eggleston, Edward, Fic . 455 

Eliot, John, Bel . 301 

Emerson, R. W., Ess. and Poet.... 370 
Everett, Alex. H., Ess. and Poet... 457 
Everett, Edward, Ess. and Or . 443 

Fields, James T., Poet, and Mis... 456 
Franklin, Benjamin, Pol. and Sci. 314 
Freneau, Philip, Poet . 313 

Gayarr£, Charles E. A., Hist . 452 































































INDEX. 


467 


PAGE 


Goodrich, S. G. (“ Peter Parley ”), 

Mis. 455 

Greeley, Horace, Jour . 458 

Griswold, R. W., Biog . 457 

Hale. E. E., Fic . 454 

Halleck, Fitz-Greene, Poet . 307 

Hamilton, Alexander, Pol . 315 

Harte, Francis Bret, Poet, and Fic. 452 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Fic . 406 

Hay, John, Poet, and Mis . 452 

Hayne, P. H., Poet . 451 

Higginson, T. W., Mis . 456 

Hildreth, Richard, Hist . 453 

Hodge, Charles, Theol . 460 

Hoffman, C. Fenno, Poet . 450 

Holland, Dr. J. G., Poet., Jour., and 

Mis. 427 

Holmes, Dr. O. W., Poet, and Fic.. 338 

Hopkinson, Francis, Poet . 313 

Hopkinson, Joseph, Poet . 313 

Howells, W. D., Mis. and Fic . 455 

Hughes, John, Theol . 460 

Hunt, Helen (“ H. H.”), Mis . 459 

Irving, Wash., Mis., Fic., and Biog. 385 

James, Henry, Jr., Fic . 455 


Jefferson, Thomas, Pol. and Hist .. .314 
Judson, Enrily (“Fanny Forester”), 


Fic. and Biog. 453 

Kennedy, J. P., Fic . 453 

Kent, James, Law and Pol . 315 

Key, Francis S., Poet . 313 

King, Thomas Starr, Mis . 461 

Krauth, Charles P., Theol . 462 

Landon, M. D. (“Eli Perkins”), 

Hum. 462 

Larcom, Lucy, Poet, and Ess . 452 

Leland, C. G. (“ Hans Breitmann ”), 

Hum. 462 

Lewis, Tayler, Ess . 458 

Lippincott, Sara J. (“ Grace Green¬ 
wood ”), Mis. 454 
Locke, D. R. (“ Petroleum Y. Nas- 

by ”), Hum. 462 
Longfellow, H. W., Poet . 324 


Lossing, Benson J., Hist, and Biog. 453 
Lowell, James R., Poet., Ess., Fic.. 378 


PAGE 


McClintock, John, Theol . 461 

McCosh, James, Theol . 461 

Mcllvaine, Charles, Theol . 460 

Madison, James, Pol. -. . 314 

Mann, Horace, Ed . 458 

Marsh, George P., Phil, and Mis. .. 455 

Marshall, John, Law.. .. 315 

Mather, Cottoji, Bel . 301 

Mather, Increase, Pel . 301 

Maury, M. F., Sci . 458 

Miller, Joaquin, Poet . 452 

Mitchell, D. G., Fic. and Mis . 433 

Mitchel, O. M., Sci ... 458 

Moore, C. C., Poet . 313 

Morris, George P., Poet, and Jour. 450 

Motley, J. L., Hist . 357 

Moulton, Louise C., Fic . 454 

Murray, Lindley, Phil, and Bel.... 314 


Newell, R. H. (“ Orpheus C. 


Kerr ”), Hum. 462 

Osgood, Frances S., Poet . 450 

Ossoli, Margaret Fuller, Crit., Mis. 456 

Parker, Theodore, Theol . 458 

Parkman, Francis, Trav. and Hist. 453 

Parton, James, Biog. and Ess . 452 

Parton, Sarah P. (“ Fanny Fern ”), 

Fic. and Mis. 457 

Paulding, James K., Me . 315 

Payne, J. Howard, Poet . 450 

Percival, James G., Poet . 449 

Phelps, Elizabeth S., Mis . 457 

Phillips, Wendell, Pol . 460 

Pierpont, John, Poet . 449 

Poe, Edgar A., Poet, and Mis . 450 

Porter, Noah H., Theol . 461 

Prentice, Geo. D., Poet, and Jour.. 450 
Prescott, W. H., Hist, and Ess . 351 

Ramsay, David, Hist, and Biog... 314 

Read, T. Buchanan, Poet . 451 

Reed, Henry, Crit. and Hist . 456 

RQe, E. P., Fic . 455 

Rush, Dr. Benjamin, Sci. and Ess. 314 

Saxe, John G., Poet . 450 

Schaff, Philip, Theol. and Hist . 461 

Sedgwick, Mrs. C. M., Fic . 453 






























































468 


INDEX. 


PAGE 


Seward, William H. ,Pol. and Trav. 459 
Shaw, Henry W. (“Josh Billings ”), 

Hum. 462 

Shea, John G., Hist, and Eel . 453 

Shillaber, B. P. (“ Mrs. Parting¬ 
ton ”), Hum. 462 

Sigourney, Lydia H., Poet . 449 

Silliman, Benjamin, Sci ... 458 

Simms, Wm, G., Poet.,Fic .,and Mis. 450 

Small, S. W. (“ Old Si”), Hum . 462 

Smith, Seba (“ Major Jack Down¬ 
ing”), Fic. and Mis. 454 

Spalding, Martin I., Tlieol . 461 

Sparks, Jared, Biog. and Ess . 452 

Sprague, Charles, Poet . 450 

Stedman, E. C., Poet . 451 

Stephens, Alexander H., Pol . 460 

Stoddard, R. H., Poet . 452 

Storrs, Richard S., Eel . 461 

Story, Joseph, Law . 315 

Stowe, Harriet B., Fic . 453 

Street, Alfred B., Poet . 450 

Sumner, Charles, Pol . 460 

A 

Talmage, T. DeWitt, Mis . 459 

Taylor, Bayard, Fic., Poet., Trav.. 422 
Taylor Benjamin F., Mis . 457 


PAGE 

Terhune, Mary V. (“ Marion Har- 

land ”), Fic. 454 
Thaxter, Mrs. Celia, Poet, and Mis. 451 

Thoreau, H. D., Mis . 456 

Ticknor, George, hist, and Biog.. 455 
Tilton, Theodore, Jour, and Poet.. 459 
Trowbridge, J. T., Poet, and Fic... 451 

Trumbull, John, Poet . 313 

Tuckerman, H. T., Crit. and Fic.. 456 
% 

Warner, Charles Dudley, Ess.... 457 
Wayland, Francis, Pol. and Theol. 457 
Webb, C. H. (“John Paul”), Hum. 462 


Webster, Daniel, Or. and Pol . 439 

Welby, Mrs. Amelia B., Poet . 451 

Whipple, E. P., Crit. and Ess . 456 

White, R. Grant, Crit . 456 

Whitney, Mrs. A. D. T., Fic . 454 

Whitney, W. D., Crit . 457 

Whittier, John G., Poet . 332 

Willis, N. P., Poet, and Mis . 418 

Wilson, Alexander, Sci . 315 

Wilson, Mrs. Augusta Evans, Fic. 455 

Wirt, William, Biog. and Ess . 315 

Witherspoon, John, Ess . 314 

Woodworth, Samuel, Poet .. 313 

Woolsey, Theo. D., Law and Theol. 458 


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